To the warfront, an Army on canvas

Going to the Front by W.C. Horsley to be displayed at Victoria Memorial, Kolkata

The march begins:Horsley’s 1878 painting depicting Indian troops going to war in Afghanistan will be displayed for the first time at Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata.

Hectic, frenzied movement and noise fill the railway station. Soldiers, horses, camels and military equipment are in various states of motion. The Army is boarding a train on its way to an expedition to the Afghan border. A soldier is handing a letter to a man on camelback; another is dousing himself with water to cool off.

It is the Second Afghan War (1878-1880), and Going to the Front by the British painter W.C. Horsley (1855-1934) captures the action dynamically.

Great impact

The painting made such an impact on Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905, that he bought it in 1921 and gifted it to Victoria Memorial, a monument he conceived of during his tenure.

Kolkata’s art lovers will be in for a treat as Going to the Front will be displayed for the first time as “Object of the Month” in the building’s Entrance Hall on May 25. The 124.5X185.4 cm oil on canvas was done in 1878.

Horsley, considered among the great late 19th and early 20th century British painters, had visited places as far as Cairo and Istanbul. His works reflect subjects from these parts of the globe too.

Role of railways

“The painting gives the viewer an idea that soldiers, animals and others on the railway platform are all in motion. We think Lord Curzon had bought us a masterpiece,” Gholam Nabi, head of the documentation and photo unit of the Victoria Memorial Hall, told The Hindu .

Jayanta Sengupta, curator and secretary of the Hall, said the painting reflected the role of the railways in maintaining the British dominion over the region.