From the 1760s, European civilians, soldiers and professional artists recorded what they were seeing whilst travelling in South Asia, mostly, in the service of corporations such as the East India Company. Creating sketches and watercolours allowed artists to capture the landscape around them. Back in Europe, these drawings or paintings were often turned into prints, which were highly popular and relatively accessible. These images allowed ‘armchair tourism’ for the public at home, making the idea of India a familiar one, even for those who had not been. Pictures, like the ones in this cabinet, can also give us an insight into attitudes towards South Asia and South-East Asia, from that time period.
These depictions of South Asia were in the ‘picturesque’ style of landscapes inspired by classical European artists. This ensured that unfamiliar landscapes were presented in a format familiar to Western viewers and appealed to potential clients’ tastes. As a result of this, these depictions were often highly idealised. They featured more muted colour tones, favoured depictions of ruins and often showed vast empty landscapes devoid of people. This consequently influenced the European imaginings of places in South Asia and South-East Asia.
The artworks featured in this cabinet are from a selection of artists in our collection who were working in India and Afghanistan between 1780 and 1860. It features the British artists William Hodges, Thomas and William Daniell and James Atkinson all of whom had a close relationship with The East India Company during their time in South Asia, and the Hungarian artist Emanuel Andrasy, who was travelling across the region in exile. There were, however, many other amateur and professional artists who were depicting Asia during this time. Many of the names of places, or people, used by artists at the time of creating these images are now not used, or have been changed. Throughout our labelling we have used original spellings in titles and updated ones elsewhere.
William Hodges (1744 – 1797)
In 1780, William Hodges became the first professional British landscape artist to visit India. Due to his influential imagery of South Asia and colonial expansion at that time, he is regarded as a key figure in 18th century art. Hodges reputation as an artist had been secured previously when he had been chosen as the official draughtsman to sail on Captain James Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific (1772-75). Upon his return to Britain, his images were widely seen and highly regarded. As a result of their popularity, Hodges soon grasped the opportunity to document India, where the East India Company had already established itself.
Between 1780 and 1783, Hodges travelled throughout India as the only artist at that time to receive an East India Company salary issued by his friend and patron, Governor-General Warren Hastings. His path across India and the scenes he depicted were linked to British expansion, travelling on the route available to him as was being set out by the East India Company. Hodges depicted the landscape in a ‘romantic’ and idealised manner, allowing a particular view of India, a non-British landscape seen through British eyes. Upon returning to Britain he set about producing images from his travels, consequently publishing Select Views of India. This was a monumental series featuring 48 aquatints all engraved by himself from his original sketches. We have 28 of these aquatints in our collection.
Thomas and William Daniell (1749 – 1840) (1769 – 1837)
The uncle and nephew artistic team, Thomas and William Daniell, embarked on their adventure in India between 1788 and 1793. Inspired by the great reception to Hodges’ images of India, the Daniells saw an opportunity for wealth and fame. Keen to find new subjects to appeal to European patrons, and after receiving permission for travel from the East India Company, they arrived in Kolkata, eager to better Hodges, whose work they often found inaccurate.
William Daniell kept a diary recording their travels, documenting how they supported themselves by selling prints or cleaning oil paintings owned by the East India Company. Often their journeys were difficult. Once, in the south, in sweltering heat which caused them both nausea, their supplies had run so low that they were forced to share a single pencil stub. The Daniells travelled for almost six years and went further than any British artist had before them. The expanse of landscape that they travelled is reflected in the varied locations in their pictures on display in this cabinet.
After returning to London, they produced aquatint prints of their views of India in a work titled Oriental Scenery. There were six volumes and they comprised of 144 coloured aquatints and six uncoloured title pages. By the second half of the 19th century, the Daniells’ prints were so popular in Britain, that they could be purchased on chinaware, fabrics and on wallpaper. They played a key role in shaping British ideas of India, so much so, that maps of newly acquired territories were sometimes altered to match their aquatints.
Emanuel Andrasy (1821-1891)
Count Manó Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka, often referred to as Emanuel Andrasy, was a Hungarian nobleman, politician, painter and collector. He participated in the failed revolution of Hungary (1848-49) which saw the Liberals fight for total independence from the Habsburg dynasty. With Andrasy being affiliated with the Liberals, he was forced to leave Hungary after their defeat. During this time of travel, Andrasy went on a grand tour of Asia, most notably through China and India. Andrasy’s paintings and sketches recorded scenes of interest to a European audience and documented his travels through landscapes of particular popularity at the time.
In 1859, the paintings and sketches he had created on his travels were turned into prints and used to illustrate his successful travel book titled Reise des Grafen Emanuel Andrasy in Ostindien, Ceylon, Java, China und Bengalen. The pictures on display in this cabinet are three of the original watercolours from which prints were made for inclusion in his book. The images in the book were mostly of game hunting and topographical scenes. After his return to Hungary, he was appointed the title of Count, from which he became known as the Iron Count due to his role in the Hungarian Iron Works. He also served in the Diet of Hungary (the legislative body before the current Parliament) from 1881 to his death in 1891.
James Atkinson (1780 - 1852)
Army surgeon James Atkinson is now often best known for his translation works of Persian literature. However, he was also a renowned amateur artist who recorded many of the scenes he witnessed whilst travelling with the army. In 1805, Atkinson was enlisted as Assistant Surgeon in the Bengal Service of the East India Company. He was placed in a hospital near Dhaka where he dedicated his spare time to the study of Persian and other local languages, as well as painting and sketching his surroundings. The amount of spare time that military men had was acknowledged by the army and they were often advised to take up the hobby of sketching the landscape around them.
By 1838 Atkinson was appointed as Surgeon with the Army of the Indus. For this position, he travelled to Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42), where he continued to capture the scenes around him. Due to his role, the subjects he chose often focussed on war imagery. They provide idealised depictions of British expansion through India and Afghanistan, recording specific events and British victories. In 1840 Atkinson left Afghanistan for India, not returning to Britain until his retirement in 1847. He published his sketches and paintings in the form of a book of lithographs titled Sketches in Afghaunistan in 1842. These pictures formed some of the first European depictions of Afghanistan.