Page 306 - Eye of the beholder

CONCLUDING WORDS
In the England of the Eighteenth-century, the revolution of aesthetic theory favoured the artistic discovery of exotic worlds like India. This was the reason for artists to embark on expeditions to the East and probably looking for the landscapes offered by the tropical regions. Many of the artists who ventured out were saved from facing obscurity, which would have been the case if they had stayed in Britain, due to inferior talent or lack of originality. It is a fact that India opened golden gates of fame and fortune. But the difficulties faced by them undertaking a long voyage to India, the tropical climate, alien atmosphere, strange people, customs and language, not to mention the prevalent diseases, only added to the achievement of the British artists, whose grit and determination was responsible for unbelievable record of Indian history, geography, flora and fauna and its art historical monuments through the centuries.
The paintings produced by both the professional and amateurs foreign artists, particularly the British, who came to the colonized land of India, had resulted in producing aesthetic consumerism in the 18th century landscape paintings particularly of historical monuments, picturesque sceneries of the Himalayan region, the seascapes, verdant agricultural lands and riverscapes of the country. These paintings provided the lens through which the visual experiences of the east were viewed. These ‘Oriental’ images produced by them became a vast repository of different kind of knowledge’s as ethnic, flora and fauna, historical monuments and the characteristic topography, which the land offered. Crucially 18th century marked a turning point in the history of encounters between Europe and South east Asia characterized by both the popularization of the ‘Orient’ in European art and literature and of the ‘Occident’ in Indian elite cultures. This was made possible by the circulation of the images, which were reproduced through varied print making process as aquatint, etching and engravings particularly.
Hence within the discourse of Orientalism as put forth by Edward Said, much of the Oriental and Occidental imagery of the period entailed a double mirroring: a ‘self’ or the superior intellectual position of the colonizers reflected in the Oriental/Occidental mirror that was constructed, a frame within which to articulate critiques of ‘self’ and the ‘other’ or the lesser privileged natives or the colonized. Thus in many ways eighteenth century paved a trajectory for calling attention to the intensity and multi-directionality of ‘global’ cultural flows.
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.
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