Page 307 - Eye of the beholder

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.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Archer, Mildred, “India Observed”, Marg, Magazine of the Arts Vol. XXXV
Daniel, Thomas, William Daniel Il, Introduction to “A Picturesque Voyage to India by the Way of China” (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1810)
Latif, Shobana, Picturesque India: Paintings of the Raj, Mid Eighteenth to early Nineteent Century, unpublished M.A. Dissertation, Department of Fine Arts, Stella maris College, Chennai, 1993.
Mahajan Jagmohan, Picturesque India: Sketches and Travels of Thomas and William Daniell, a Book Review by Radha Kumar, in The India Magazine: Her People and Culture,[July 1983,
Pal, Pratapaditya [ed.] “Calcutta the City of Kali” Marg A Magazine for the Arts, Vol. XLI No. 4, A TATA Enterprise, Bombay
Tapati Guha Thakurta, Monuments, Objects, Histories: Institutions of art in Colonial and Post colonial India Columbia University Press 2004
Sadhu, Anirban, “Franz Eduard Sunkel and the Emergence of Oil Painting in India” Art & Deal Magazine, Issue 43/Vol. 7, No.13, November 15, 2011, New Delhi
Sadhu, Anirban, “Discovery of a Rare Artist: Olinto Ghilardi (1848 – 1930)”, Marg A Magazine for the Arts, Vol. 10, no. 4 A TATA Enterprise, Bombay
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