Unsung Artists of Colonial India Flower Paintings

Henry J. Noltie, a botanical historian, curator, and taxonomist, describes the paintings we are viewing as “palimpsests that mix art and science.”

History and Purpose of Botanical Paintings in India

Indian artists produced these pieces throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, mostly at the request of East India Company (EIC) officers and then by British authorities following the EIC’s dissolution, with the intention of documenting the subcontinent’s rich flora and wildlife. Some of the paintings are only partially colored due to the strong use of the taxonomic principle, which allows a botanist to deduce a more complete image from the faint outlines.

We are meeting at his publisher’s office in Delhi on an especially gloomy morning to discuss Noltie’s most recent creation, Flora Indica, a beautifully designed catalogue that will be on display at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in London until April 12. Recovering Lost Stories From Kew’s Indian Drawings, the book’s subtitle, conveys the project’s goals of honoring the rich history of the subcontinent’s botanicals while also paying tribute to the artists who created these works and are yet unknown today.

Curating Flora Indica: Themes and Challenges

Noltie, who has worked at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for a long time, took on the difficult task of choosing only a few of the more than 7,500 botanical paintings in the Kew collection for the exhibition. He organized the exhibition and the book under three overarching themes: “The life of the paintings, the lives of the artists who made these, and the afterlife of the works and their makers,” as he puts it, in collaboration with historian and independent researcher Sita Reddy. This selection focuses on paintings from North Indian herbariums in Saharanpur and Calcutta (now Kolkata). The southern pieces display different narratives and styles. This practice yields not only a fragment of history but also an intriguing and intricate jigsaw puzzle that is somewhat cohesive but far from complete.

Recovering the Artists’ Identities

Recovering the identities of a group of Indian artists from the 18th and 19th centuries who were formerly grouped together under the umbrella term “Company School” has garnered scholarly attention in recent years. A variety of paintings by artists like as Mazhar Ali Khan, Yellapah of Vellore, Shaikh Zain ud-Din, Bhawani Das, and Manu Lall were on display at the Wallace Collection in London in 2019 when historian William Dalrymple organized Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting For The East India Company. The show made the world aware of the various techniques used by the painters in addition to the sheer variety of their topics, which focused on India’s flora, animals, and peoples.

By humanizing some of the artists in ways that had not exactly been done previously, Noltie’s work advances this endeavor. He discovered, for example, a heartfelt letter from senior artist Vishnuprasad to his former employer, Nathaniel Wallich, who, according to Noltie, “had just returned to his post of Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden after an absence in Europe of nearly five years.” In addition to being an appeal for his reinstatement in Calcutta from his present position in Saharanpur, Vishnuprasad’s letter, with its poor English, shows him an identity that the “Company School” had long since erased.

The benefactors who first commissioned the paintings bear responsibility for this erasure. A colonial sahib would only infrequently take the time to engrave the name of the painter. The pieces were more frequently recognized by the collections they belonged to, like the Fraser Album, which Dalrymple used as inspiration, or the commissions from Scottish surgeon and botanist William Roxburgh (1751-1815). Even eminent academics, such as the late B.N. Goswamy, did not believe it was beneficial to bring the names of the artists out of the shadows. In more recent times, researchers have begun to focus more intently on the paper trail that accompanied the paintings, uncovering information about the hands that created them as well as their provenance.

For example, Adam Freer (1747-1811) was quite meticulous about giving credit to the artists who worked under him, so Noltie was fortunate to discover a collection of stylistically noteworthy works and track them back to their creators. In some instances, labels affixed to the paintings assert that they were created by British artists such as Mary Govan; however, Noltie clarifies that these anomalies are caused by later embellishments made by the families’ successors. However, Govan was a trained artist herself, and she did enrich some of the Indian artists’ creations.

Compensation and Recognition of Painters

The British masters did not pay the painters poorly despite their lack of respect for them. The painters earned significantly more money than the gardeners and other employees. Hugh Falconer (1808–65), for example, was one of the nicer patrons who persuaded the government to provide a stipend to the widows of some of the deceased painters. As demonstrated by Lutchman Singh, who sowed his wild oats and got into jail as a young man but was bailed out by his masters for his extraordinary gift (Noltie characterizes him as a “loveable rogue”), talent frequently prevailed over truants. Singh ultimately had a lengthy and successful career that lasted for several decades. In an era when life expectancy was significantly lower than it is now, he was presumably paid well enough to live into old age.

Colonial Botanical Mission and Environmental Insights

The botanical mission, like the majority of colonial endeavors, was a manifestation of the desire to dominate, subdue, and categorize. The 2013 work Flora’s Empire: British Gardens in India by historian Eugenia W. Herbert demonstrated that the British “garden imperialism”—whether it was through tea plantations or poppy farming—was yet another way to enrich the Raj. Noltie explains, “The officials who commissioned these paintings were passionately interested in natural history, but they were not ecologists.”

However, there are certain examples, like the painting of a fern, where it is clear that environmental and climatic changes have affected some species throughout the ages. The tree no longer reaches the height of many meters that it formerly did (as shown in scale next to a Lepcha person). Perhaps additional such discoveries will be uncovered once these priceless paintings are digitized and made available to a larger community of academics.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who were the creators of imperial India’s beautiful floral paintings?

Indian artists produced the majority of these pieces during the 18th and 19th centuries. Mazhar Ali Khan, Yellapah of Vellore, Shaikh Zain ud-Din, Bhawani Das, Manu Lall, Vishnuprasad, and Lutchman Singh are among the well-known artists, though many are still unidentified. Although their names were mostly obscured, they frequently worked under British commissions.

2. Why were these paintings of flowers created?

The paintings had both artistic and scientific functions. In addition to exhibiting artistic talent, they documented India’s diverse flora and fauna for botanists and colonial officials. To enable botanists to infer complete details from outlines, some were only partially colored.

3. Why did the artists frequently remain anonymous?

Rarely did colonial benefactors give credit to the painters, preferring to highlight the collections or commissions. These artists were categorized under the title “Company School,” which erased their individual identities. Adam Freer was one of the few exceptions who did give due credit.

4. Did the painters receive reasonable compensation?

Indeed, compared to other colonial employees like gardeners, painters received higher salaries. Nevertheless, their compensation trailed behind its recognition. Some patrons, like Hugh Falconer, even ensured widows of deceased painters received stipends.

5. Why is it important to reclaim these artists’ identities now?

Acknowledging the artists offers historical insight into imperial India’s art and science while also humanizing and honoring their accomplishments. These “unsung masters” are highlighted and their legacy is preserved for future research through exhibitions such as those organized by Henry J. Noltie and William Dalrymple.

Conclusion

Colonial India’s flower paintings, which were mostly produced by talented Indian artists whose names were frequently forgotten, were an amazing fusion of beauty and science. These “unsung masterpieces” are finally receiving the credit they merit thanks to contemporary studies, exhibitions, and catalogs like Flora Indica, which honor their artistic talent and historical value.