NCERT Class 8 History The Changing World of Visual Arts

The Changing World of Visual Arts

When you look at a work of art – a painting, sculpture, etc. – it may not be obvious that like most other things, art too is influenced by the world around it. You may not realise that what you see also shapes your own ideas. In this chapter we will be looking at the changes in the world of visual arts during the colonial period, and how these changes are linked to the wider history of colonialism and nationalism.

Colonial rule introduced several new art forms, styles, materials and techniques which were creatively adapted by Indian artists for local patrons and markets, in both elite and popular circles. You will find that many of the visual forms that you take for granted today – say, a grand public building with domes, columns and arches; a scenic landscape, the realistic human image in a portrait, or in popular icons of gods and goddesses; a mechanically printed and mass-produced picture – had their origins in the period we will discuss in this chapter. To understand this history we will focus primarily on the changes in one sphere – painting and print making.

New Forms of Imperial Art

From the eighteenth century a stream of European artists came to India along with the British traders and rulers. The artists brought with them new styles and new conventions of painting. They began producing pictures which became widely popular in Europe and helped shape Western perceptions of India. European artists brought with them the idea of realism. This was a belief that artists had to observe carefully and depict faithfully what the eye saw. What the artist produced was expected to look real and lifelike. European artists also brought with them the technique of oil painting – a technique with which Indian artists were not very familiar. Oil painting enabled artists to produce images that looked real.

Not all European artists in India were inspired by the same things. The subjects they painted were varied, but invariably they seemed to emphasise the superiority of Britain – its culture, its people, its power. Let us look at a few major trends within imperial art. Looking for the picturesque

One popular imperial tradition was that of picturesque landscape painting. What was the picturesque? This style of painting depicted India as a quaint land, to be explored by travelling British artists; its landscape was rugged and wild, seemingly untamed by human hands. Thomas Daniell and his nephew William Daniell were the most famous of the artists who painted within this tradition. They came to India in 1785 and stayed for seven years, journeying from Calcutta to northern and southern India. They produced some of the most evocative picturesque landscapes of Britain’s newly conquered territories in India. Their large oil paintings on canvas were regularly exhibited to select audiences in Britain, and their albums of engravings were eagerly bought up by a British public keen to know about Britain’s empire. Fig. 2 is a typical example of a picturesque landscape painted by the Daniells. Notice the ruins of local buildings that were once grand. The buildings are reminders of past glory, remains of an ancient civilisation that was now in ruins. It was as if this decaying civilisation would change and modernise only through British governance. Engraving – A picture printed onto paper fro a piece of wood or metal into which the design or drawing has been cut Fig. 2 – Ruins on the banks of the Ganges at Ghazipur, painted by

Thomas Daniell (oil, 1791) Portraits of authority Another tradition of art that became immensely popular in colonial India was portrait painting. The rich and the powerful, both British and Indian, wanted to see themselves on canvas. Unlike the existing Indian tradition of painting portraits in miniature, colonial portraits were life-size images that looked lifelike and real. The size of the paintings itself projected the importance of the patrons who commissioned these portraits. This new style of portraiture also served as an ideal means of displaying the lavish lifestyles, wealth and status that the empire generated.

Let’s recall

1. Fill in the blanks:

(a) The art form which observed carefully and tried to capture exactly what the eye saw is called _________.

(b) The style of painting which showed Indian landscape as a quaint, unexplored land is called _________.

(c) Paintings which showed the social lives of Europeans in India are called _________.

(d) Paintings which depicted scenes from British imperial history and their victories are called _________.

2. Point out which of the following were brought in withBritish art:

(a) oil painting (b) miniatures (c) life-size portrait painting (d) use of perspective (e) mural art

3. Describe in your own words one painting from this chapter which suggests that the British were more powerful than Indians. How does the artist depict this?

4. Why did the scroll painters and potters come to Kalighat? Why did they begin to paint new themes?

5. Why can we think of Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings as national?

Let’s discuss

6. In what way did the British history paintings in India reflect the attitudes of imperial conquerors?

7. Why do you think some artists wanted to develop a national style of art?

8. Why did some artists produce cheap popular prints? What influence would such prints have had on the minds of people who looked at them?

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 8 History The Changing World of Visual Arts