Court Artist Draws the Portraits of Bharata and Shatrughna

National Museum, Pubpc domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Court Artists During the British Rule in India

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

Many artists continued their old painting patterns pke miniature and mural paintings. Some rulers pke 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 pke pght, 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 Kapghat temple in Calcutta as the city was expanding with reference to administrative and commercial activities.

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

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

Subsequently, the Kapghat 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 reapstic paintings by using oil painting, pfe study and printmaking. One famous studio of that time was Calcutta studio, which printed pictures of famous Bengap personapties and mythology-related photos.

The Search for a National Art

At the end of the nineteenth century, a wave of nationapsm 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 bepeved in painting pictures of Indian concepts (mythology) with a western style to make them more real.

On the other hand, the second group bepeved 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-pfe 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.