What Happened to The Court Artists?

Introduction

With the expansion and consolidation of the British Empire in India from the eighteenth century, many European artists began to travel to India with traders. These artists brought ideas of western paintings with them.

Their idea of art was mainly based on realism, where the artist was expected to depict everything that looked like real life. And for this, they used oil painting and tried to give three dimensions to their paintings. Gradually Indian artists also adopted this style to depict their pieces of work. Indian artists began to paint Indian mythology and religion with western style, which was later criticized by national groups of artists and accepted the medieval Indian tradition of painting as an authentic version of the national art.

Court Artist Draws the Portraits of Bharata and Shatrughna

National Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Court Artists During the British Rule in India

The expansion of British power in India made changes in the life of Indian artists.

• Many artists continued their old painting patterns like miniature and mural paintings. Some rulers like Tipu Sultan wanted to maintain the traditional pattern of painting rather than adopting the British style of painting. Therefore, he provided patronage to many court painters.

• On the other hand, a different style was observed in Murshidabad. Since rulers of Murshidabad were considered British puppet rulers, they asked local painters to adopt the British style in their paintings like light, shadow and perspective.

• During the colonial era, some local artists even began to lose their influence due to the lack of patronage by local rulers. At this moment, these painters began to paint for the company, portraying pictures of Indian flora and fauna, buildings and festivals etc. Hence. These paintings were called Company paintings.

The New Popular Indian Art

With the development of cities, painters began to migrate from villages to cities in search of patrons and buyers for their work. For instance, local scroll painters known as patuas and potters, known as kumors or kumhars, shifted near the Kalighat temple in Calcutta as the city was expanding with reference to administrative and commercial activities.

• Till the eighteenth century, these Kalighat painters used to paint on the themes of mythology and religion. The images made by theme were initially flat, but gradually, they made them three-dimensional by shading and making bold outlines. These paintings were still unrealistic.

• From the second half of the nineteenth century, these Kalighat painters began making images based on social and political structures' themes. These pictures mainly condemned the educated Indians, fascinated by the western culture.

• Subsequently, the Kalighat painters began to sell their pictures in large quantities. Initially, they used block prints, but by the end of the nineteenth century, they used printing machines. It reduced the time and manual labour and made the paintings cheaper.

• Now some middle-class Indians, who had been trained in the British art school, set up a printing press and began making more realistic paintings by using oil painting, life study and printmaking. One famous studio of that time was Calcutta studio, which printed pictures of famous Bengali personalities and mythology-related photos.

The Search for a National Art

At the end of the nineteenth century, a wave of nationalism arose amongst Indians. It was reflected even in the field of art also. Now painters came up with a modern style and, at the same time, it was Indian.

There were two groups of artists who had different versions of national art −

• On the one hand, a group of painters believed in painting pictures of Indian concepts (mythology) with a western style to make them more real.

• On the other hand, the second group believed in making Indian paintings with the traditional Indian style to maintain the nation's cultural heritage rather than imbibing western culture in paintings.

The Art of Raja Ravi Varma

One of the famous painters of the national style was Raja Ravi Varma, belonging to the family of Travancore's Maharajas. He was well-trained in the western art of oil painting and real-life study. He painted themes from Indian mythology, including scenes of Ramayana and Mahabharata. His paintings became a fervent desire for Indian rulers and art lovers.

Galaxy of Musicians – by Raja Ravi Varma

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raja_Ravi_Varma,_Galaxy_of_Musicians.jpg

Eventually, Ravi Varma established a team for Bombay's picture production and printing press. Now coloured pictures of religious and mythological figures were printed on a large scale and became accessible to the masses, including the poor.

A Different Version of the National Art

• A new group of national artists under Abanindranath Tagore criticized Ravi Varma's national art for replicating the westernized tradition of oil painting and life study.

• This group asked to move back to the medieval Indian style of painting consisting of murals and miniature paintings as authentic Indian paintings.

• They appreciated the Japanese style as many artists from Japan travelled to India to advance the Asian art movement.

• In Abhinandranath's paintings, the influence of Rajput's miniature and Japanese paintings can also be observed.

Conclusion

The establishment of British power in India also witnessed a change in art and paintings. This change impacted the lives of local artists as well. During the early nineteenth century, artists were divided into categories: firstly; who continued the traditional style under patronage of local rulers, secondly; ones who partially adopted the British style under puppet rulers and the third category included artists, who were creating company paintings. With this, artists began to move to cities for buying their paintings. Subsequently, a new trend of art emerged, termed as national art with the use of westernized style for portraying Indian mythology (like Ravi Varma's painting). Thisye was condemned by a new group of artists, who urged a shift to traditional style to medieval painting as authentic national art.

FAQs

Q1. What do you understand by mural paintings?

Ans. A painting which is directly made on the surface of the wall or ceiling.

Q2. Who was the puppet ruler of Murshidabad? Where is Murshidabad now?

Ans. Mir Jafar was considered to be the puppet ruler of the British in Indian history, who had nominal political power. Murshidabad is in the present day West Bengal.

Q3. What was scroll painting?

Ans. Scroll painting was a tradition in East Asia, where painters used to paint on silk, paper or any other fabric in the landscape format with pictures of natural features, people, cities and other surroundings.

Q4. Who was Abinandranath Tagore?

Ans. Abinandranath Tagore was the nephew of Rabindranath Tagore. He was famous for supporting the swadeshi traditions of Indian art. He established the "Indian society of Oriental Art".

Q5. What is the role of the Tipu Sultan in Indian history?

Ans. Tipu Sultan was Mysore's ruler, who challenged the British East India Company to expand its political control in the southern part of India by fighting a series of famous Anglo-Mysore wars.