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

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