Page 236 - Eye of the beholder

In the 19th century, condition for landscape painters began to improve in Britain and it became a lucrative art. When patronage at home increased, artists stopped seeking their fortunes abroad. Besides the advent of photography in 1840s replaced painting. Consequently India ceased to be an Eldorado for artists and professional painters, who were reluctant to come to India.
According to Gilles Tillotson in the catalogue of the historical exhibition titled, “The Raj: India and the British 1600-1947”, observed, “The representation of India in British Landscape painting is a unique artistic achievement; at no other times has one country been so extensively and minutely observed by artists from another.” Generally these artists believed in the importance of travel as a first-hand observation of nature, also stressing the need to convey the feelings that nature produced in man. As a romantic, they understood that landscape art reproduced the natural world through its reflection in man’s soul, which allowed it to be understood as a whole. The most interesting aspect, indeed, was unraveling the different views which gave rise to their visual thinking. Moreover, the publications of artists like the Daniells and William Hodges could be considered also as singular masterpieces which broke the boundaries between arts and sciences. Besides Daniells’ contributed to the knowledge of India, these artists created “pictures of nature”.
Within the colonial art discourse, scholars have been more inclined to question the nexus between art and imperialism, in a wide range of contexts. Hence it is possible to establish that it would be routine to take as a starting point the idea that colonial art—like any other colonial product- reflects and reinforces colonial ideology.
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