FROM MERCHANTS TO EMPERORS

BRITISH ARTISTS AND INDIA 1757-1930

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ORGANIZED BY
THE PIERPONT MORGAN LIBRARY
AS PART OF THE
FESTIVAL OF INDIA
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PRESENTED AT
THE MORGAN LIBRARY NEW YORK
I MAY- 31 JULY 1986
AND
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART
9 SEPTEMBER 1986-4 JANUARY 1987
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I986 THE PIERPONT MORGAN LIBRARY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1986 BY
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
124 ROBERTS PLACE
ITHACA NEW YORK 14850
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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER
CLOTH o-80I4-1907-7
PAPER o-8014-9386-2
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUE CARD NUMBER
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PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM BY
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS LTD
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LONDON WIX 4HQ ENGLAND
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PRINTED AND BOUND IN JAPAN
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Contents
Foreword by Charles Ryskamp
7
Preface by Pratapaditya Pal
9
Introduction
II
1. Transporters of Picturesque Beauties
2I
2. Strangers in the Land of Regrets
45
3. In Search of Romantic India
97
4. Native Artists and Exotic Art
I 53
5. India Through the Lens
I8I
Notes
2I3
Glossary
2I7
--Bib-liograph..,.,-y---
2I9
Index
223
..
r83. "Misdirected Energy"-The Hon'ble Stuart
S. Hogg, Chairman of the Calcutta Municipality
from the Indian Charivari Album. r875. Litho-
graph. Walter Collection.
Hogg, Chairman of the Calcutta Municipality,
reacted upon seeing himself depicted as a
sweeper under the caption "misdirected en-
ergy" (fig. I 8 3 ).
Artists of the Company school were intro-
duced to the art of caricature by their British
patrons long before the appearance of the Cha-
rivari Album. A small anonymous watercolor
shows Sir John Burgoyne as a ridiculous bear
(fig. I84). Burgoyne was the commander of the
Twenty-third Light Dragoons, and Macartney
was the governor of Madras (I78I-85). The
one-legged fiddler is General Stuart and behind
him are Admiral Hughes and Mrs. Charles
Oakeley, whose scandalous affair, that rocked-
Madras society was no doubt the inspiration
behind the ca'ricature. Another contemporary
satirical work is an album prepared by an un-
known Company artist for a Mr. Adams of the
Bengal Civil Service in Calcutta in I826. Con-
I74
taining 4I7 folios, each embellished with a rap-
idly drawn sketch, the album is a remarkably
amusing document of Anglo-Indian life and in-
terests. Figure I 8 5 shows the inside of a native
sdwol with a pundit seated on the ground
teaching Bengali to his students. The exact
function of the Englishman seated at the table is
not known; he may well represent an inspector.
The artist was probably literate as is evident
from the Bengali letters and numerals correctly
written on the boards hanging from the walls.
Following this tradition, Kalighat artists also
indulged in a good deal of graphic satire, mostly
about the babus and the hypocrisy of the
temple priests. A stock motif of the Kalighat
artists was a cat holding a fish in its mouth
which symbolized the ascetic's hypocritical atti-
tude toward sensual pleasures. The message was
also conveyed more directly in 'a picture of a
Vaishnava, whose duplicity was often ridiculed
in Bengali literature, at a woman's breast
(fig. I86).
r84. Anonymous (South India). Caricature of
General Stuart, the British Governor, Madras.
c. I783. Watercolor. Collection of Edwin
Binney, 3rd.
I85. Anonymous (Calcutta?). A School in Calcutta. c. r825. Watercolor. Private Collection.
This desire to expose the hypocrisy of the
priests and holy men was also no doubt the pri-
mary motive behind the popularity of a sen-
sational murder trial of the day. Known as the
Tarakeswar Murder, it took place in I873 and
involved both a Brahman family and the ma-
hant, or head priest, of the well-known Saiva
temple at Tarakeswar in the Hooghly district.'
The Brahman was Nabin Chandra Banerjee,
whose young wife Elokeshi was seduced by the
mahant of the temple. It appears that the girl's
family was privy to the intrigue and even en-
couraged her to continue the affair and to de-
ceive her husband. On a visit to the village
where the girl lived with her parents, Nabin de-
cided to bring his wife to Calcutta where he
worked;-ti-e-h-ad heard of the aliegati:orrs-about
his wife's liaison with the mahant, but loved her
so much he ignored her indiscretions! At this
point the mahant, who had fallen in love with
Elokeshi,-tomplicated matters by
prevent her departure with her This,
of course, infuriated Nabin who picked up a fish
knife and almost decapitated Elokeshi. Despite
public sympathy for Nabin, he was convicted of
murder and the mahant was incarcerated on the
I86. Anonymous (Kalighat). A Vaishnava Priest at
a Woman's Breast. c. I875 Watercolor. Private
Collection.
I75