The Making of a New Indian Art: Artists, Aesthetics and Nationalism in Bengal, C. 1850-1920 0521392470, 9780521392471

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Abanindranath Tagore, ' Bharat Mata' (water-colour, 1905).

THE MAKING OF A NEW 'INDIAN' ART Artists, aesthetics and nationalism in Beng al, c. I85o-1920

T A P A T I G U H A-T H A K U R T A Fellow in History, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta

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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

RARY·' \ ART LIBCON SINJ·. TY

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'ERS,lTY53706 )&SON Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1 R P 4 0 West 2oth Street, New York, N Y IOOII-42 1 1 , USA 1 0 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Victoria 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1992

First published 1992 Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Librmy

Librmy qf Congress cataloguing in publication data Guha-Thakurta, Tapati. The making of a new "Indian" art: artists, aesthetics, and nationalism in Bengal, c. 1850 -1 920 / Tapati Guha-Thakurta. p. em. - t_ambridge South Asian studies) S ;;2_ ·:···· Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index . . . :.: -� ·� ISBN 0 52 I 39247 0 1. Art, Bengali. 2 . Art, Modern - 1 9 th century- India- Bengal. 3· Art, Ylodern - 2oth century - India - Bengal. 4· Nationalism and art - India- Bengal. I. Title. II. Series. N7307.B 4G84 1992 70 9'·54' 1 4-090 34 - dc2o 9 1 -2357 1 CIP .

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Contents

List of illustrations Photographic acknowledgements Abbreviations Glossary Preface

page xii x1x xx xx1 xxv

In troduction I Artisans, artists and popular picture production in nineteenth-century Calcutta 2 The art-school artists in Calcutta: professions, practice and patronage in the late nineteenth century 3 I ndigenous commercial enterprise and the popular art market in Calcutta : the emergence of a new I ndian iconography 4 Tradition and nationalism in I ndian art : art-histories and aesthetic discourse in Bengal in the late nineteenth century 5 Orientalism and the new claims for I ndian art: the ideas of Havell, Coomaraswamy, Okakura and Nivedita 6 The contest over tradition and nationalism : differing aesthetic formulations for ' Indian ' painting 7 Artists and aesthetics: Abanindranath Tagore and the ' New School of I ndian Painting ' Epilogue The Twenties

226 3I3

Bibliography Index

327 34 I

XI

II

45

78

I I7 I 46 r

85

Illustrations

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 I

o

II I2 I3

Abanindr anath Tagor e, ' Bhar at Mata ' ( water-co lo ur , Frontispiece I 905) - RBS Worship at a Kali temple near Calcutta, ' Company ' painting fro m Calcutta (water -colo ur , c. I 798-I 8o4 ) IOLR. page I 4 Sheikh Muhammad Amir of Karr aya, Horse and Groom, ' Co mp any ' painting from Calcutta (water colour, c. I 845) - IOLR. I7 Co ur tesan with a rose and mirror , Kalighat painting 20 (water-co lo ur , c. I 87 5 )- V & A. Babu with a hookah, Kalighat line dr awing, midnineteenth centur y- Ashutosh Museum, Calcutta University. 2I Kali Charan Ghosh, Courtesan tr ampling on h er lov er , Kalighat painting (water - co lour , c. I 900) - V & A. 22 A co py of a Kalighat image of Elokeshi and the Mahanta at Tar akeshwar , Bat-tala wood engr aving, engr av er unknown. 25 A Kalighat-style cour tesan (oil, ano nymo us, n . d . ) 26 Birla Academy of Ar t and Culture, Calcutta. Bat-tala wood- engr av ing, ' The Musk Rats' Music Par ty ' by Nrityalal Datta- VM. 29 Bat-tala wood-engr aving, ' Ghor Kali , by Nr ityalal 30 Datta -VM. Bat-tala wood-engr aving, ' Rasar aj and Rasamanjari ' by Madhab Chandra Das - V & A. 3I Ramdhan Swar n akar , Por tr ait of Dav id Har e (woo d34 engr aving, c. I 8 7os) - VM. Mahishasur amar dini and Kalki-avatara (oil, nineteenth century, Chinsura)- IM. 37 Go ur and Nitai with a pro cessio n of Vaishnav a '

xu

Xlll

ILlustrations

14

IS I6

I7

I8

devo tees ( gouache/water- colour, c. nineteenth century, Chitpur) - N . R. Chakrav arty, Calcu tta. 38 Shiv a and Parv ati (oil, late nineteenth century, locality unknown) - N G MA 41 The Marble Palace : the o u ter f a� ade with the marble statuary - pho tograph fro m A. Claude Campbell, Glimpses of Bengal, Vo l. I ( Calcutta, I907). so Po reshnath Sen, Po rtrait of Prodyo t Kumar Tago re, a copy of a work by a Euro pean artist (oil, c. I 905) RBM . s6 Illustratio ns in Raja Raj endralal Mitra, The Antiquities of Orissa, Vol. I ( Calcutta, I 875) ( a) Fa�ade of the Lingaraj temple of Bhuvaneswar -litho graph by Kalidas Pal. (b) Two sculpted columns - lithograph by Annada Prasad Bagchi. 62-63 Bamapada Banerj ee, Portrait of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (o il, I8go) V M . 76 Nabin Chandra Ghose, Po rtrait of ' Raj a Ram Mohun Roy, the Great Hindoo Refo rmer ' (lithograph, r858) VM. 8o Girindrakumar Datta, Caricature of the Euro pean driv e against nudity and obscenity in I ndian society (lithograph) -Basantak, r875 . 8s Priyagopal Das, Title-page illustratio n ( woodengraving)- Mukul, I895· 87 Krishnahari Das, ' The Kalki Avatara ' , illustratio n in Raja So urindro Mo hun Tago re, The Seven Principal ivfusical Notes of the Hindus ( Calcutta, I892). 88 Harishchandra Haldar, Illustration to Bankim Chandra Chatterj ee's ' Bande-Mataram ' Balak, I885. go Abanindranath Tago re, I llustratio n to Dwij endranath Tagore's ' Swapnaprayan ' -Sadha na, I st issue, I8gi-g2 . gr Portrait of H. H . Lo cke, Principal" of the Calcutta Schoo l of Art (lithograph) - Shilp a.:pushpanjali, I886. 94 Po rtrait of Dwarakanath Tago re (lithograph, c . r878 by the Calcutta Art Studio ) - VM. 95 Savitri and Satyav an ( chro molitho graph, c . I878-80 by the Calcutta Art Studio ) - Ashmo lean Museum, Oxfo rd. 97 Nala-Damayanti ( chro mo lithograph, c. I878-8o by the Calcutta Art Studio ) - Ashmolean �1 useum, Oxford. g8 -

I9

20

2I 22

23

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24 25 '26 '27 '28

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29 30 3I 32

33 34

35 36

37 38 39 40 4I

42 43 44 45 46

I llus rt ations Saraswati ( chro molitho graph, c. I877-78 by the Calcutt a Art Studio ) - Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Radha and Krishna ( chro molithograph by the Kansaripara Art Studio ) - R. P. Gupta, Calcutt a. 'Janmasht hami ' : Vasudeva escaping wit h t he child, Krishna (lithograph) - S hilpa p - us hp anjali, I886. Ravi Varma, ' Hamsa Damayant i ' (Damayanti and the swan) (oil, I8gg) - Sri Chitra Art Gallery, Trivandrum. Ravi Varma, 'Kamsa Maya ' (Kamsa and the divine illusio n ) (oil, c. I888) - Laxmi Vilas Palace, Baroda. Ravi Varma, ' Krishna Drisht a ' (The viewing of the infant Krishna) (oil, I888) - Maharaj a Fateh Singh Museum Trust , Baroda. J. P. Gangooly, ' Wet Banks of the Ganges ' (oil, n.d . )Natio nal Gallery of Art , Madras. J. P. Gangoo ly, ' The Talking Parrot , Vaishampayan ', illust ratio n o f a scene fro m Banabhatt a's Kadambari (oil, c. I 8g8-gg) , originally in the co llectio n of the Tagore Castle, Calcutt a- fro m Pradip, Magh r 306/I goo. Bamapada Banerjee, Arj una and U rvashi (oleograph, I 8go) - VM. Bamapada Banerjee, Abhimanyu and Uttara (oil, c. r8go) - IM. Ravi Varma, ' Vishvamit ra and Menaka ' (oil, c. I 8g8) -Maharaj a Fateh Singh Museum Trust , Baroda. Ravi Varma, ' Arj una and Subhadra ' (oil, c. I8g8) Maharaj a Fateh Singh Museum Trust , Baroda. G . K. Mhat re, ' To The Temple ' (plast er-cast sculpture, I895) - J. J. School of Art , Bo mbay. Reproduced from JIAI, January I8g8. M. V. Dhurandhar, ' Gouri Utsav ' - from Prabasi, Jaishtha I3 I O/I903. M. V. Dhurandhar, ' The Sacred St eps ' - fro m T he Mod ern Rev i ew , June I 907. M. V. Dhurandhar, Shakunt ala at t he court of king Dushyant a - fro m Prabasi, Jaishtha I3 IO/I 903. Ishwari Prasad, Port rait of E . B. Havell (wat er-colo u r, c. rgo5) - IOLR. Avinash Chandra Chattopadhyay, ' Nirj at it e Ashirvad '

99 I02 I04 I05 I07

I 09 II2

I I3 I I4 I I5 I29 I3 I

I 34 I4 I I 42 I44 I 50

Illustrations

47 48 49 so

51 52 53 54 55 s6

57 ss

59

6o 6r

(Blessings Amidst Torture) -fro m Prabasi, Jaishtha I 3 I 4/ I g07. Gunendranath Tago re, Still-life sketch (water-colo ur, n.d.) - RBM . Abariindranath Tagore, Po rtrait of the yo ung Rabindranath Tago re (p astel, c. r 8g r-95 ) -Bose I nstitute, Calcu tta. Abanindranath Tago re, Landscap e sketches (watercolo ur, sketch-book, r 8g r )- Sumitendranath Tago re, Calcutta. A p age from Francis Martindale 's album of ' illuminated ' manuscrip t, illustrating a poem by Coleridge (gilt and water-co lo ur, r 8g 7 ) Sumitendranath Tago re. Abanindranath Tago re, ' Shuklabhisar ', illustratio n of a padavali by Govindadas (water-colour, c. r 8g7) Sumitendranath Tago re. Abanindranath Tagore, The Birth of Krishna, Krishnaleela series (water-colo ur, c. I 8g8-gg)- RBS . Abanindranath Tagore, Buddha and Suj ata (waterco lour, c. r go r ) -I M . Abanindranath Tagore, The Trav eller and the Lo tus, illustratio n of Kalidasa's Ritu-sam hara (water-colour, c . r goo ) - IM. Abanindranath Tagore, ' Abhisarika ', illustratio n o f Kalidasa's Ritu-sam hara (water-co lour, c. I goo ) - I M . Abanindranath Tagore, The Passing of Shah J ahan (oil o n wood, r go2 ) - RBS. Abanindranath Tagore, The Bui� ding o f the Taj (water-co lo ur in the gouache teld had in its collection a large set of engravings of ' durbar ' scenes at Murshidabad, Mysore, Hyderabad and Travancore by F. C. Lewis, made in the r 84os.21 The highest value, however, was attached to items of European ' classical ' art : the neo-classical paintings of English Royal Academy artists like John Opie, Charles Eastlake or Lawrence Alma-Tadema ; the biblical ·compositions of the French artist, Horace Vernet ; and, most of all, the duplicates of Raphaels, Titians, Rubens or Guido Renis and the array of Venuses, Cupids, Psyches, Apollos and Minervas in marble and bronze. There was a rarified ·aura of classicism and grandeur in both the theme and scale of such works which added to their status as ' high art ' . For the patron and collector, they symbolised a more elevated dimension to their aesthetic tastes. The collections at the ' Tagore Castle ' , the ' Marble Palace ' and the Burdwan Maharaja's palaces could boast of the largest assemblage of such ' masterpieces ' . There seemed to have been a particular taste in the Burdwan family for Pre-Raphaelite and High Victorian painting, as reflected in the copies it possessed of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's ' Dante's dream on the death of Beatrice ' and the entire set of G. F. vVatts' allegorical compositions, ' Hope ' , 18

Catalogue of. . . the Collection of the Maharaja Tagore ( 1 905) . One of Jacombe-Hood's later portraits of Pranab Nath Tagore (oil, 1 92 7 ) is still in the family collection. 19 The portraits of Mahtab Chand Bahadur by Marshall Claxton (oil, r 855) and that ofBijoy Chand Mahtab by an artist of the firm ofJohnston and Hoffman and a painting by H. V. Pederson, ' Delhi Durbar' (oil, 1 902-3) are still on display in Lhe Old Library, Burdwan University (Raj bari complex ) . 2 ° Catalogue of. .. the Collection of the Maharaja Tagore ( r 905) . 2 1 For example, ' 'Phe Installation in the Musnad of his Highness, the Nawab Nazim of Murshidabad on 27 May 1 847 ' or ' The Durbar ofhis Highness, the Maharaja ofMysore, 1 848-49 ' - collection : Mihir Mitra.

The art-school artists

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' Faith ' , ' Love and Life ' and ' Love and Death '. 22 And there were certain common top favourites, such as Raphael's ' Holy Family ' and ' Madonna della Sedia ', Guido Reni's portrait of ' Beatrice Cenci ', Joshua Reynold's ' Laughing Girl ' , or statues of ' Venus de Medici ' and ' Apollo Belvedere ', which existed in multiple copies in all these collections. Such grandiose private collections, revelling in replicas of Euro­ pean ' great art ' had little room for local artists, except in their role as copyist. In their eagerness to purchase paintings from abroad and from exhibitions in the city, ' these Native noblemen ' were said to be doing a great service to the development of art in their country. A newspaper report commented : ' This cannot but cause refined pleasure to many and eventually prove an outlet for Native talent, which otherwise could never . . . establish itself in the public esteem ' .23 But such an ' outlet ' seemed hard to come by. Patronage was generous in providing for special prizes, earmarked for Indian artists, in the ' fine art ' exhibitions ; but it was far less forthcoming in the purchase of these exhibits or even in the commissioning of portraits from local oil painters. The names of I ndian portrait painters were few and far between in the galleries of oil portraits adorning these houses. Often, as in the case of many of the portraits of the Tagore family, I ndian artists like Jaladhi Chandra Mukherjee or, later, Poreshnath Sen were called on only to copy or repaint older portraits painted by European artists24 (Figure 1 6 ) . J atindra Mohun Tagore's collection was exceptional in including a fair number of portraits painted by Calcutta artists of the time, of family members and some con­ temporary Bengali notables. 25 Another function of I ndian painters and modellers, in this milieu, was to provide the patron with cheap copies of European classical sculpture and oil paintings. Thus, Jadunath Pal, an early student and later a teacher of modelling at the Calcutta School of Art, was asked by one of his local patrons, Justice Ashu tosh Chowdhury, to model a set of Venuses copied from European prints, for their house at Krishnanagar. 26 I n another case 22 Collection : Old Library, Burdwan University. 23 The Englishman (goth Januar y r 8go) . 24 A number of portrait ' copies ' painted by Poreshnath Sen around r go r -2 are in the Rabindra Bharati University Museum (RB M ) , Calcutta. 25 Among these were portraits ofRaja Rajendralal Mitra by Annada Prasad Bagchi, of Gopal Chandra Chakravarty (the singer, ' Noolu Gopal ') by Jaladhi Chandra Mukherjee, ofRai Bahadur Dinanath Ghosh and Keshab Chandra Ganguly by Pramathalal Mitra. 26 Pramatha Chowdhury, Atma-katha (Calcutta, 1 947), p. 25.

The making of a new ' Indian ' art

Fig. 1 6. Poreshnath Sen, Portrait of Prodyot Kumar Tagore, a copy of a work by a European artist (oil, c. 1 905 ).

of misplaced fancy, a marble relief plaque of ' Diana Hunting Stags ' , adorning, of all places, the thakur-dalan of the ' Marble Palace ' was ordered from a Jaipur craftsman, Shyam Sundar, who modelled it from an oil painting by Frank A. Wills in the family's collection. 27 27

Catalogue of the Marble Palace (1 976), p. 7·

The art-school artists

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The names of the copyists happen to be on record in these few cases, but there must have been hosts of other such copies made for private collections where no mention is made of the Indian painter or modeller. Beyond their limited functions as portrait painters and copyists, Bengali artists remained largely excluded from the favours of these patrons. Despite their acknowledged competence in the Western Academic style of painting in the art school and in exhibitions, their work could not really compete with Western works of art (which were in constant supply in Calcutta) in finding their way into the private collections, or even into the Calcutta Art Gallery.28 In their attempts to establish themselves in the profession, Indian artists clearly lagged behind their Western counterparts. While the example of European artists acted as a constant pull on their skills and aspirations, the practical limits in patronage and opportunities trapped and hindered them. This dichotomy in their position - this gap between aspirations and possibilities - was, to a large extent, inherent in the very structure of the training out of which they emerged. THE TRAINING OF THE

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ARTIST

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- MOTIVES O F BRITISH ART

E D U CA T I O N IN I N D I A AND THE WORKING O F THE G O V E R N M E N T S C H O O L O F A R T , C A L C U T T A , C.

1 864- 1 894

The Government School of Art, Calcutta was caught within the dual, often contrary priorities of British art-education schemes in India ­ between its self-avowed mission of inculcating the ' right ' taste for art in Indians, and its practical concerns with providing them with some useful and employable skills. I n the I 8sos, the issue of evolving in 28

Again, Jatindra Mohun Tagore provides an exception to the rule in opening up his collection to the work ofsome local artists, like Girish Chandra Chatterjee, Harish Chandra Khan, Bamapada Banerjee andJamini Prakash Gangooly. The other large art collection of the time which included a surprisingly large number of works by Indian painters was that of the Burdwan Maharajas. But the trend here was distinctly different. For the works which were collected were not those of artists, trained in the art school or in a Western style of oil painting, but largely those of the more ' traditional ' painters of Murshidabad, Patna, Lucknow or Delhi, continuing with a hybrid style of miniature painting in gouache, tempera or water-colours. The Burdwan collection also had an interesting group of miniature paintings, classified as ' Modern Moghul ' and ' Modern Bengal ', p ain ted by Muhammad Hakim Khan and Rameshwar Prasad Varma in the early twentieth century. Both of them were posed as ' traditional ' artists, whose lineages could be traced back to old atelier.3 of painters of Delhi, Lucknow and Patna ; at the same time, both had assumed a modern identity, as they were drawn into the swing of Abanindranath Tagore's nationalist art movement.

sB

The making of a new ' Indian ' art

India a systematised and institutionalised structure of art education had been a matter of both imperial paternalist commitments and the new Victorian approach to the arts. The period which saw the setting up of the first schools of art in I ndia coincided with the organisation · of the Great Exhibition of r 85 r ( ' The I ndustry of All Nations ') in London ; the launching of a reformist trend in industrial design by Owen Jones and Henry Cole ; the flourishing of the Arts and Crafts movement of William Morris ; and the mushrooming of new Schools ofDesign all over England.29 Together, these had laid out a clear-cut case for the need and importance of training in the arts, specifying the kinds of artistic skills that were to be cultivated. Given the crisis in English industrial design and the enthused interests in the revival of the ' lesser arts ' of the Morris circle, design and industrial art had become the twin priorities of the new movement for art instruction in England. There was a clear differentiation being made between ' Academies of Fine Arts ' and ' Schools of Design ' , with the priority placed on the development of the latter. The aim was not to cultivate ' art for its own sake ' , but ' to cultivate superior skills of ornamental design and to bring this skill to bear immediate! y on the . . . com­ mercially viable manufactures of the country ' . 30 The scheme of art instruction in I ndia showed much of the same priorities, with the attention squarely focused on the industrial and ornamental arts - ' the lesser arts ' as opposed to the ' higher arts ' . The differentiation between ' fine ' and ' industrial arts ' acquired, however, new colonial overtones in the I ndian context. It produced an ideological framework in which Britain's growing appreciation of Indian art-ware could be contained within the dominance ofWestern aesthetic norms and the westernised art establishment of the Empire. For excellence in the ' fine arts ' was set apart as a monopoly of the West ; and I ndian art, however appreciated, was relegated to the sphere of the ' lesser arts ' . I ndian crafts were seen to offer a wealth of design, skill and dexterity and stand as a lesson for the degenerate industrialised tastes of the West. At the same time, I ndian craftsmen were found to possess a unique capacity to be trained and tu tored in new, improved forms. The discovery of the splendours of I ndian 29

This Victorian background has been discussed, at length, in Partha Mitter, lvfuch 1\1aligned Monsters (Oxford r g7 7 ) , Ch. V ; and Mahrukh Tarapor, Art and Empire : The Discovery ofIndia in Art and Literature, I85o-1947 (unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Harvard, 1 9 7 7 ) , Chs. r , 3· 30 R . N. Wornum, ' The Government School of Design ' ; correspondence relating to a debate on ' Is it Possible to Teach Design ' ; W. C. Taylor, ' On the Cultivation of Tastes in the Operative Classes ' - in The Art Journal (London, r 84g).

The art-school artists

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decorative arts in the Great Exhibition of I 85 I , the fascination for Indian design among Britain's new school of industrial designers, and the championship of the dying craftsmen, the victim of British commercialism, by the Arts and Crafts ldealists31 - all this fostered a growing commitment to the preservation and development of the traditional art industries of I ndia under British tutelage. Alexander Hunter, Principal of the first School of Art in Madras, while surveying the potentials of art schools all over the country, made enthused references to the ' Indian aptitude for acquiring art, quite equal to that of students in Europe ' , and to the great moral duty of the British ' to try and lead their art into some of the best and purest channels '. 32 But in the first decades of British art instruction in I ndia, the training of the so-called ' real artists ' was a negligible concern of both official and private endeavours. For all the talk about elevating the ' thoughts and aspirations of the natives ', the priorities were placed on a system of training that was purely technical, craft­ based and employment-oriented. What became increasingly im­ portant in the Schools of Art was less the revival of the traditional hereditary craftsmen, and more the training of a new stratum of skilled, semi-clerical professionals, who could easily be absorbed with­ in the expanding British services. Alexander Hunter, in talking of the inherent I ndian ' ap titude for acquiring art ' was concerned mainly with the I ndian skills as a copyist : the most lucrative capital for training and employment. 33 I n purporting to guide native skills into ' the best and purest channels of study ', the students were to be drilled into Western Academic standards of representational accuracy, precision and technical finesse, with the best employment prospects in British I ndia. I t was believed that the most distinctive feature of this scheme of art education in I ndia was that it was concerned ' not so much with teaching as with testing the results of teaching ' .34 Accordingly, the entire curriculum of the School of I ndustrial Art in Calcutta was geared to the training of ' native drawing mas­ ters . . . skilled draughtsmen, architects, modellers, wood-engravers, lithographers and designers for manufacturers ' 35 The synonymity of art with ' industrial ' or ' applied art ' was firmly established in the .

3 1 Partha Mitter, Much A1aligned lvfonsters, pp. 22 1 -3 1 ff. 32 Alexander Hunter, Correspondence on the SubJect of the Extension of Art Education in Different Parts

of India (Madras 1 867), p. 42. 3 3 ibid., p. 8. A. M . Nash, Second Quinquennial Review on the Progress of Education in India, I 887-88- I 8g 1-g2. 35 Memorandum on art and industrial education in Bengal, submitted by H . H . Locke, Principal of the Calcutta School of Art - BGP /E, August 1 870, No. 45· pp. 57-58. 34

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6o

The mflk-in� o_f a

n.; I 5s-6, 3 I O- I 2 , 3 I 8 exhibitions, 6, I I , 45-9, 52, 55, 64, 67, 70- I , 76, I I I , I 43, I g8-9, 2 76, � 78-8 I , 3o5-6, 3 I 8- I 9, 323 industries, s8, 6s-6 artisans, 6, I 2-I 3, 24, 2 7-8, 3 I , 40, 42, 44 , 70, I I 8, I 52-3, I 64, 305-6

Artist's Press, Calcutta, 82, 87 ' Arts and Crafts ' movement, 59, I 48, I 5 I , I 59, I 62 Aryans, I 20-2, I 8 I-2, 203 ; art tradition, I 2 2 , I 26 Ashbee, C. R., I 6o- I Asokan pillars, I 2 I babu-bibi pats, 20 babus, I g-2 I, 24, 2g Bagchi, Annada Prasad, 42, 4 7-8, 70- I, 73, 77, 8 I-2, 8g, I OO, 2 J 4, 27 ? Bageshwari Shilpa Prabhandhabali, 207 Bagh paintings, 292 Balak, go Bandopadhyay, Charuchandra, I g i , 30 I Banerjee , Bamapad a , 39, 40, 44, 72, 75 , 77, I OO , I I I , I I 4, I I 6, I 45, 2 I 5, 2 7 7 , 280, 32 1 Banerjee, Rakhaldas, 2 I 8 Bangiya Kala Samsad, Calcutta, 2 7 7 Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, Calcutta, I gg Baroque decoration, 5 I Basantak, 84-6, g6 Bat-tala : pictures and picture-trade, I 3 , I 8, 25-35, 3g-4o, 43-4, 78, 83-5, g6, I 27, 1 g3, 202 presses, 2 7-8 engravers, I 3, 25, 2 7-8, 3 I -5, 40, 78, 84 ' bazaar ' art, 6, I 2- I 3, I 8-44, 68-9, 7 7 , 83-4, I 30, 202 ' bazaar' craftsmen, 66 ; engravers and painters, 5, I 2- I 3, I 6, 35, 40, 42, 44 Becker, 76 Beechey, George, 46 Belgatchia Villa, 5 I-2 Benaras Hindu University, I 66 Bengal School of painting, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 149, 2 2 7 , 3 I 1 , 3 1 3 - 14, 3 I 8- 1 g , 323 Besant, Annie, I s8, 280

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342

Index

Bhara t Kala Bha van, Benaras, 3 r 2 Bharati, r ro, 1 28, r gg, 2 1 4- 1 5 Bharatvarsha, 2 r 5 , 32 r -3 Bhattashali, Nalinikanta, 2 r 8 Bhubaneswar temples, 6 r -3, 66, r r g-zo biblical paintings, r o8 Bichitra art studio, 2 75-7, 303, 308, 3 r o, 314 Bichitra Gallery Art Committee, 279 Bigelow, William Sturgis, r 68 Birdwood, Sir G. C. M . , 75, 1 33, 147, 1 64-5 Biswas, Nobokumar, 8 r , r oo Black Town, r 8- r g, 40, 83 Blount, Norman, 2 7 7-9 Bombay School of Art, see J.J. School of Art, Bombay Banerjee, W. C . , 75 Borobudur sculptures, I So Bose, Atul, 3 I g, 32 r , 323 Bose, Harinarayan, 8g, 230 Bose, Nandalal, r g r , I 94-6, I gg, 203, 208, 2 1 3, 2 70-2, 2 75> 2 78, 2 8 I -2 , 286, 288-9, 2 9 1 -2 , 297, 299, 304-5, 3 I I - I 2 , 3 ' 4 ' 3 I 9, 324 Boston Museum of Fine Arts, r 66, r 68 Bourne and Shepherd, 8 I Bourne, Sir Henry, 46 Brahmanical religion, r 58 Brahmin authorities, I r 8 Breton, Jules, I 93 British Museum, 65 Brush Club, 46 Buddha, 1 64-5 Buddhism, r 70- r , I So, 20 I Buddhist art and aesthetics, r 20-2, I 62, I 70 , I 73, I 76-7, I 79-8 1 , 208-g Burne-Jones, Edward, r go Burns, Sir Cecil, r 63-4 Byzantine styles, r 65 Calcutta Art Society, 49 Calcutta Art Studio, 34, 40, 44, 79, 8 I-2, 94-6, g g , I O I , 1 03, 1 08, I IO, I 15, ! 27-'-8, r so- r , !87, 3 ' 9 Calcutta School Book Society, 2 7 Calcutta School of Art, see Government School of Art, Calcutta Calcutta University, 207, 308 calligraphy, 1 55, 233, 236 Cama, P. B., 48 Cammata tribe, r r 8 Campbell, Sir George, 7 4 Canaletto, Antonio, 46 caricatures, r g-z r , zg-so, 83-5, 302, 304, 3I4

Carlandi, 0., 52 Carmichael, Lord, 2 n-g, 3 I 0 cartoonists, 84-5, 304-5 Central Asia, I 8o Ceylon, I 6o- r , r 82 , 274 Cezanne, 222 Chakravarty, Gopalchandra, 84 Chakravarty, Manmathanath, 2 1 5- I 6, 2 I 8, 223 chalchitm, 2 I o Chanda, Ramaprasad, 2 1 8- 1 9 Chandernagore, 36, 42 Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra, go, 92, 1 24, ' 33, ' 96 Chatterjee, Girish Chandra, 47, 72 Chatterjee, Ramananda, 1 33, I 3 7-7, r g r , 280, 282, 284 Chatterton, Alfred, r 64 Chattopadhyay, Avinash Chandra, 196 chiaruscuro, 40 Chinese art and aesthetics, r 6g-7 I , 206, 22 7 Chinnery, George, 46, 5 r , 54Chinsura, 36 Chipping Campden Guild and School of Handicraft, r 6 I Chisholm, Robert, r 64 Chitra-Shilpi Company, Calcutta, 83, ! 02-3 Chorebagan Art Studio, Calcutta, 83 Chowdhury, Ashutosh, 55 chromo-lithographs, chromo-lithography, 27, 38, 44, 83, 97-9, IO I-2, 2 1 6 ; see also lithography Chugtai, Abdur Rahman, 29 I , 297-g, 30 1 , 303 classical art traditions and canons : European, ! 25, I 33, r sg, r62, ! 76 Indian, r r o , r r 8-22, 1 2 7, 1 28-9, 1 32, r 5 s-9, r so, r 83-4, r 92, I gg, 2 0 2- 7, 209- r o, 2 1 2 , 2 1 9-22, 236, 294 classicism, r 40, 209, 2 r 2 Claxton, Nlarshall, 54 clay models, 47, 66, 70-r Clive, Lord, r 38 Cole, Henry) 58, I 4 7 ' I 79 colonial historiography, 2 r 9 colonialism, 2 commercial art, 6, 3 r , 79, 82, 86, 93-6 commercialism, r 75 ' Company ' draughtsmen and painters, I 2, I 5 - I 8 , 24, 2 7 ' Company ' paintings, 1 2 , 1 4- 1 7, r g, 47, 65 Confucius, r 6g Congress Industrial Exhibition of r go3, Calcutta, 245

Index Coomaraswamy, A. K., I 2 I , I 46-9, I59-63, I 65-9, I 74-5, I 7 7-8, 1 80-3, 187, 1 90-2, 195, I 98, 209, 2 1 2, 220- 1 , 2 79, 28 I , 286 copyists, 4> I5 , 16, 55, 57, 59 > 7 I Corbyn Dr Frederick, 6o Courbet, Gustave, 93 court painters, 5, 1 3- I 4, 305-6 ; see also miniature artists Cousins, James, 280 crafts, 2, s 8, 6s-6, 70, 1 4 7-9, 1 52-3, 1 55 > I6o- I , 1 64, 202 craftsmanship, 70, I 26, 148-9, 15 I-2, I 56, I 6 I , I 69, 233 craftsmen, I 3, 58, 59, 66, 67, I I 8, I 56, 267 ; see also artisans ' Cubist' compositions, 304, 3 I 5 ' Cubist' paintings, 3 I 6 Curzon, Lord, I 4 7 D. Rozario and Co., 5 2 Daniell, Thomas, I 5 , 40, 54 Daniell, William, IS , 40 Das, Dinanath, 72, 79 Das, E. C., 1 7 Das, Krishnahari, 88-9, I 03-4 Das, Priyagopal, 86 Datta, Girindra Kumar, 84-5, 96 Datta, :\11ichael Madhusudan, 85-6 Datta, Nrityalal, 29-30, 32 Datta, Prananath, 84 Datta, Satyendranath, 2 I o Deb, Sarachandra, 82 Deb, Trailokyanath, 86 Deccan miniatures, 89 ; see also miniatures decorative arts, 59, 64, 66, I 46, I 5 I , I 64, 25 I ; see also crafts, design Delhi, miniature paintings, I 98, 233 ; Durbar Exhibition, 242-3, 245 design, 58-g, 6 I , 67, 83, I 49-53, I 55> 235, 238 ; see also decorative arts designers, 59 Dey, Bipin Chandra, 305 Dey, Gangadhar, 72 Dey, Mukul, 299, 30I-3 Dey, Sailendranath, 2 73, 294, 309, 3 I 2 Dhar, Debendranath, 92 Dhurandhar, M. V., 39, I 40-3, I 45, 282 drama, Bengali, 85 draughtsmanship, I6, 68, 7 I , 2 74 draughtsmen, 4, I 2 , I6, 45, 59, 6 I , 67, 72, 78, I 5 2 drawing, 6o- I , 65-7, 70- I , 229, 2 3 I -2 , 236, 238, 2 70, 3 r o ; architectural, 42, 229 ; Mughal portrait, 245

3 43

drawing masters, 6, 45, 78, I 5 2 ' Dutch Bengal School ', 36 Dutt, Romesh Chandra, 75, Ig6 Dutta, Satyendra Narayan, 305 Dyck, Van, 46 Eastlake, Charles, 54 Elephanta, I 74, I 8o, 292 Ellora, I 70, I 74, I 8o, 209, 292 Elokeshi scandal, 22, 25-6 English Royal Academicians, 46, 54-5, 64-5 engravers, 6, I 2 , 27, 3 I , 32, 45, 69, 72, 78, 83, 86, I 52 Bat-tala, I 3, 25, 2 7-8, 3 I - 5, 40, 44, 78, 8s European, I I , 2 7 wood, 25, 2 7 , 34, 59, 86 engravings, r I , 3 I , 52, 68, 82 aquatint, 40 European, I 3, 52 metal and wood, 28, 47, 6 I , 67, 70, 86, 9