The Company Style

By Nadeem Alam

The Indian subcontinent was fully captured by the British "East India Company" in 1857 AD but many parts of the great empire were already under the company's regime, even before the final battle of 1857; the Ghadr.

Where there was adversity due to the colonial rule in the south Asia, there were also influences of modern life style and the developed science and technology of the west. The arts and the skills which were linked with the royal courts, were seeking patronage either in the peace of hill states or under the new western lords-the; the Gora Sahibs.

Many officers of the East India Company, were painters themselves who, for the sake of their own record, and some time for the sake of art only, painted the local landscape, fauna and flora, and characters from everyday life on continuous basis, which caused the western realistic style to enter into the stylized tradition of painting, that was in practice across the Subcontinent.

This practice by the officers ultimately resulted into evolving a blend of the east and the west that provided solid grounds for a new style of painting; the company painting.

Many of the British officers were watercolorists who inspired the aboriginal painters of opaque miniature technique of water based colors with the transparency of western watercolor, up to a level where admiration forced the local painter to try something for the new lords in the a style they brought with them.

Anjan Chakraverty in his famous book 'Indian Miniature Painting' has mentioned this influence in the following words:

"The country became a jewel in the crown of the British empire. It attracted lawyers and surgeons, intellectuals and artists, besides merchants and adventurers. These English residents and travelers made a fruitful discovery of native artists 'who were as talented and obliging as they were plentiful."

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taking the art of painting into consideration, one could feel that the indigenous approach of stylized painting was getting merged into the western 'true to life' naturalism as most of local painters were engaged in the rendering of paintings which were required for the surveys and records as per company's requirements. This activity attracted the artists, who once were under the Mughal or any other feudal patronage, to seek patronage from the British rule. These artists adapted themselves to the new medium and technique so quickly that they were considered worth appreciating by the Britons after a thorough analysis.

Lord Baden Powel was one such bureaucrat who paid keen attention on the handicrafts of the Punjab and promoted the skilled persons in this area. He collected vital information about these skills and even commented upon as he appreciated the work of a miniature painter of Punjab in his 'Handbook of the Manufacturers and Arts of the Punjab' as under:

"His color is often exaggerated but it is always warm and rich and fearless. The native artist is also patient, for weeks and months he will work at his design, painfully elaborating the minutest details; no time is considered too long, no labour too intense to secure perfection in imitation or delicacy in execution. The greatness failing in native artists is their ignorance of perspective and drawing, and it is fortunate that this want is most easy to supply."

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In these circumstances, under the immense western influence and out of the centuries old tradition of native convention of miniature painting 'company style of painting' evolved with local artists working for the company projects and western officers, most of whom were artists by themselves, naturally those masters guided and inspired the local art in terms of technique, application and themes as by the 2nd half of the nineteenth century, the West was enjoying, realism, neoclassicism, impressionism and was also knocking at the doors of 20th century with abstract expressionism.

Company paintings emerged as the assimilation point in the arts of the subcontinent, which later became the foundation for the modern art across South Asia especially in the academic arts of this region.

Prior to this juncture of time; during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Indian artists were commonly employed by the British East India Company as its servants, to illustrate the manners and customs of India and to record its many picturesque sights, monuments, deities, festivals, crafts and occupations. Their work, a blend of Indian and British styles, evolved up to an extent that a new style of painting or a new school of painting came into view in the South Asia. This style was not as monotonous and customary as the indigenous one; mainly due to the illuminations of manuscripts, a common practice of the rich royal courts, but was distinct in style, modern in approach and western in application. As the British demand was of images from everyday life, the paintings enclosed the market scenes, religious processions and rituals, occupations, methods of cultivation and household activities. These paintings could be taken as the visual record of everyday life in the 19th century, which were a handy asset for the British rulers and administrators in carrying out their duties at a place that was diverse in culture with varying activities.

These images were often compiled as a book, and were presented as gifts to contemporaries or saved as souvenirs.

The western technique got popularity with its distinctive features like, perspective, cross hatching, opaque shades and washes of defused colours, contrary to the aboriginal gay colours with illuminating effects; a common feature of the Indian Miniature painting.

The company painting breathed its first probably in the southern cities of Madras, Tanjore and Trichnopoly in the second half of the 18th century where the Brightness of colours was at hype in the creative tradition of Golkonda. The intensity of colours in this part of Subcontinent got alleviated and the static figurative expression, introduced to the natural humanistic styles. The Western influence crawled to nearby regions and overwhelmed Murshidabad, Patna, Banaras and Avadh while Calcutta was on top in acclimatizing to the modernity in all aspects, even genres other than painting.

While Avadh, owing to its royal and lavish traditions associated to the Nawabs, provided patronage to the modern British style of painting and they hired many British painters as their court painters as early as in the 19th century when the Britons had not taken over completely.
Patna and Banaras were among the centers who received inspiration by the modern British technique but only at the surface level, while Delhi after being fallen to the Company in 1803, provided opportunities to the native families of painters who had been serving the Mughal courts for generations. They served the company by preparing architectural drawings of great monuments of Delhi, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri. Moreover, portraits of the Mughal emperors on ivory and figurative paintings of the royal dancers were other notable works under the west-influenced art.

E B Howell was the last patron of local painters who appointed Company painters from Patna, Lala Isvari Prasad was one of them, selected to serve at Government School of Arts in Calcutta to teach the intricacy of the miniature painting and ornamental art.

It was this influence that later provided basis for the modern arts of Pakistan seeing that Mayo School of arts (NCA) and Department of Fine Arts at the University of the Punjab under Anna Molka Ahmed, fashioned that very style of painting in general, while at Bengal School of arts, a very strong nationalistic movement emerged as a reaction to that influence and westernization.
But in both cases, the company painting founded the modern and western style art in the Subcontinent which now has become the most popular painting style, across South Asia.