🎨✨ Chapter 10 – The Changing World of Visual Arts ✨🎨

In this chapter, we explore how painting and visual arts in India transformed during the British colonial period. Art has always reflected society, and during the 18th and 19th centuries, India saw a huge change in painting styles due to British influence, modern ideas, and nationalist spirit.

🌍 1. Art Before the British

• Indian art was rich and diverse, including:
  • Miniature paintings (Mughal, Rajput, Pahari styles).
  • Temple art & murals (Ajanta, Ellora tradition continued in South).
  • Court paintings showing kings, gods, and daily life.

👉 But with the arrival of Europeans, new techniques, styles, and themes entered India.

🎨 2. European Influence – New Styles Arrive

• The British East India Company wanted paintings that showed:
  ✅ Indian landscapes
  ✅ Architecture & monuments
  ✅ Everyday Indian life (villages, bazaars, festivals)

This style came to be known as Company Painting.

📌 Example:

• Paintings of temples, palaces, rivers, birds, and plants made for British officials to send back home.
• They combined Indian themes with European techniques (like shading, perspective, realism).

🖼️ 3. Portrait Painting

• The British loved portraits (realistic pictures of individuals).
• Indian kings, nawabs, and rich merchants also began getting their portraits made to look “modern” and powerful.

✨ Features:

• Use of oil painting (a European medium, new to India).
• Emphasis on realism, background, and clothing details.

📌 Example: Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906) – famous for realistic portraits of Indian gods, goddesses, and royals.

🖌️ 4. Landscape and Life Paintings

• Artists painted:
  • Hills, rivers, forests (to show India’s natural beauty).
  • Indian festivals, bazaars, dances (to show “exotic India”).
• Many of these were made for European officers as souvenirs.

📌 Thomas Daniell and William Daniell (British artists) painted large Indian landscapes.

🖼️ 5. Realism and Oil Painting

• Traditional Indian painting was flat and symbolic.
• British introduced:
  ✅ Oil paints
  ✅ Realistic shading
  ✅ 3D effect using perspective

👉 Slowly, Indian artists started adopting these.

🇮🇳 6. Nationalist Art – A New Identity

• By the late 19th century, many Indians felt European art was dominating Indian culture.
• They wanted to create an “Indian style” of painting.

✨ The Bengal School of Art (led by Abanindranath Tagore) began:

• Using soft, delicate lines.
• Choosing themes from Indian history, mythology, and epics.
• Rejecting oil paint, preferring watercolours.

📌 Example: Abanindranath Tagore’s famous painting “Bharat Mata” (Mother India) – shown as a divine woman with four hands holding food, cloth, learning, and protection.

🖌️ 7. Raja Ravi Varma vs. Bengal School

• Raja Ravi Varma (South India)
  • Used European realism + Indian themes.
  • Made paintings of gods/goddesses in realistic style.
  • Printed calendars and books with these images → reached common people.
• Bengal School of Art (East India)
  • Inspired by traditional Indian styles (Ajanta, Mughal miniatures).
  • Rejected European realism.
  • More spiritual and emotional art.

👉 This debate showed India’s search for its own national identity in art.

✨ 8. New Mediums – Popular Art

• With printing technology, art reached the masses.
• Cheap prints, calendars, posters of gods and goddesses spread across villages and towns.
• Popular art created religious unity and a sense of nationalism.

📌 Example: Images of Bharat Mata, Shivaji, Krishna, Ram, and Durga circulated widely.

📖 9. Art as a Tool of Nationalism

• Paintings became a way to inspire Indians against British rule.
• Bharat Mata symbolised the nation.
• Historical figures like Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Rani Laxmi Bai were painted as symbols of resistance.

🌟 10. Summary (Key Points)

1. Traditional art changed under British influence.
2. Company paintings mixed Indian themes with European realism.
3. Oil painting and portraits became popular.
4. Raja Ravi Varma made gods and royals look realistic.
5. Bengal School rejected European style, went back to Indian traditions.
6. Art became a tool of nationalism through images of Bharat Mata, heroes, and gods.

❓ Practice Questions

1. What are Company Paintings? Give two examples.
2. How did oil painting change Indian art?
3. Compare Raja Ravi Varma and Bengal School of Art.
4. Why was the painting of Bharat Mata important?
5. How did art spread nationalism in India?