Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company


Delightful exhibition at the Wallace Collection looking at the art commissioned by the East India Company by local artists.

I love Mughal painting and was fascinated to see the combination of that style of art with subject commissioned by the British in India. I like the meticulous detail and occasional quizzical take on a subject that is strange to the artist. The commentary pointed out that each region had its own style and gave a good outline of the main artists.

The show also traced the changing relationship between the two countries with a real sense of assimilation in the early years including the wonderful “Portrait of Sir John Wombwell Smoking a Hookah” going through the tenser pre-mutiny period when the British tried to dominate more.

There was a room dedicated to an album of natural history pictures commissioned by Sir Elijah Impey by Bhawani Daso Ram Das which took seven years to complete. I particularly liked the looming pictures of bats and the detailed ones of birds as shown here.

I also loved the pictures of everyday life in Delhi commissioned by James Baille Fraser including an assembly of village elders with such individual faces who would be any group of politicians in any age.

My favourite picture was the one which greeted you as an enlargement as you entered, but was also there in its original sketch book, a self -portrait of Yellaph of Vellore sitting working with his assistants. It gave a wonderful sense of how the artists worked but also gave a face to the creator of some of this delightful art.

Closes on 19 April 2020

Reviews
Guardian
Telegraph
Evening Standard


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my...
Read more

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B...
Read more

The Renaissance Nude

Image
Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art. The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ. I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room. My favourite work was ...
Read more