Rich tones of 18th century India

Daniells, an uncle-nephew duo, painted some of the finest images of the country.

March 30, 2015 04:52 am | Updated 05:17 am IST - Kolkata

Oil on canvas by Thomas Daniell depicting barges on the Gomati. Photo: Sushanta Patranobish

Oil on canvas by Thomas Daniell depicting barges on the Gomati. Photo: Sushanta Patranobish

They traversed through an alien land on foot, boats and horseback and in bullock carts. They risked their life and limb, plodding through 18th century India to capture it in their paintings. They were the Daniells, an uncle-nephew duo, whose quest for the exotic gave us some of the finest images of the country.

Such is the enduring lure of this collection that two centuries later, a few of the paintings will now be displayed at the Surat Science Centre on International Museum Day in May.

These magnificent paintings now adorn the walls of many museums and the homes of the wealthy. But perhaps the largest collection is with the city’s Victoria Memorial — the iconic monument also houses one of the country’s most visited museums and no tour of Kolkata is complete without a look at the Daniells’ collection.

Thomas Daniell was 36 when he set sail from England on a voyage to the Orient with his 16-year-old nephew, William, in 1785. They were of meagre means, but the mystical East beckoned them to undertake an arduous journey that brought them eventually to India, a land which was till then relatively unknown to their own countrymen. The East India Company had by then marked its footprints in India.

They dropped “anchor” in Calcutta and started taking in the sights in and around the city. The rivers, the ghats, the temples and the churches caught their fancy.

However, it was perhaps the triumph of the spirit of the Romantic movement, then spreading through their country, that made them decide to follow their passion, moving upcountry to the north and then again to the deep south in a journey that was as physically draining as it was emotionally rewarding.

We now reap the fruits of their labour when we see their work on the Taj Mahal (the waters of the Yamuna, a beautiful blue), Fort St. George in erstwhile Madras and the Dasaswamedh ghat at Varanasi.

During their nearly eight-year stay in the country, they went up to the Garhwal Himalayas and waterfalls in the south.

Professor Jayanta Sengupta, curator of the Victoria Memorial, says the paintings which reflect the romantic spirit of the duo are invaluable assets.

Curiously, the paintings were not done here. Mostly the engraving and sketches were made by the Daniells and impressions were later transformed into large paintings in England.

And they were a rage among the British elite, who not only bought the paintings (of which at times copies were made by the Daniells) but also used some of the motifs therein in their interior décor. Over a century later they were also on the catalogues of Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

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