Company Paintings and Paintings of Raja Ravi Varma

Company Paintings

• English officers in British colonised India appointed artists to paint scenes of day-to-day happenings around them
• This mixture of traditional and European painting styles came to be known as the Company Painting and found its roots in British India
• Company paintings were famous among the British in India and in Britain, where albums, pictures were much in demand

During the eighteenth century, The East India company strengthened its political dominion in the Indian subcontinent. They wanted to capture their life in India and wanted to send it back home.

In the early phases of the Company school, artists were dependent on a few key patrons. Several enterprising Indian artists started creating sets of standard popular subjects to earn money as they attracted tourists who visited popular attractions.

Gradually, they set up schools and trained Indian artists in Western styles of painting. Madras Presidency was the first region that saw the development of this style. The Tanjore artists were the first to paint in this style.

 In Hindi, the Company School of Painting is known as Kampani Kalam. The technique used was western watercolor technique which consisted of “transparency of texture, soft tones and modelling in broad strokes”.

Such company paintings depict a range of monuments, festivals, castes, occupations, or costumes of the people living in the subcontinent. Sewak Ram was a notable and influential artist of the Company school of art who worked in Patna. Members of the Ghulam ‘Ali Khan family of Delhi were also renowned artists who made company paintings. Delhi company style became popular for the use of ivory as the base for their paintings. Patna was an important centre when we speak of company paintings as it was the abode of many British expatriates. An important factory and a Provincial Committee were situated here. Therefore, it was an important centre where company paintings were made.

Calcutta became the earliest production centre. Here, it was patronised by Lord Impey (Chief justice of the High Court) and Lord Wellesley (Governor General). Animals and birds were the most important subject. It is said that 2542 paintings were completed by the Wellesley retired in 1813.

This style did not flourish in Rajasthan, Punjab Hills and Hyderabad, where their indigenous styles were more prevalent. The introduction of cameras led to the disappearance of Company style. The last exponent of this style was Ishwari Prasad, who died in 1950.

Raja Ravi Varma

He combined Indian and European elements to create a unique style of painting in itself. Raja Ravi Varma paintings depicted stories from Puranas (ancient mythological stories ) and the great Indian epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana.

What set him apart from the artists of his time was that Raja Ravi Varma brought together Indian traditional aspects with the unique techniques of European academic art.

• The academic oil painting style flourished in the British art schools and used a European medium to depict Indian subject matter
• Self-taught artist Raja Ravi Varma, associated with Travancore, present-day Kerala, made a mark for his fusion of Indian and European art pieces
• He learnt by emulating copies of European paintings famous in Indian palaces and gradually mastered the style of academic realism. Raja Ravi Varma used this newly-found knowledge to depict scenes from famous epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata and thus, perfected his art
• Company painting and painting of Raja Ravi Varma gained so much popularity that many of his paintings were copied as oleographs and sold in the market. They even entered people’s homes as calendar images
• The depiction of Hindu Gods in paintings of Raja Ravi Varma received immense appreciation from the general public
• Amidst nationalist thinking, the Bengal School of Art emerged in the first decade of the twentieth century

CONCLUSION

The Company School of Painting emerged as a result of the East India Company’s coming to power in the Indian subcontinent. They became patrons of this style of art as they started training Indian artists the western elements of painting. It is a cross between Indian and European styles as it integrates traditional Mughal and Rajput elements with Western ones. Raja Ravi Varma is the most renowned artist of this style of painting.