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India - dream of a better life for Thomas Daniell. India - palaces, Hindu temples, Far East, oriental exoticism. India - shaken by wars, famines, poverty, devastation, social dislocation, resistance to the conquerors. India - object of desire for the British East India Company, trading company for the colonization of the Indian subcontinent.
In 1784, Thomas Daniell, a skilled painter of coats of arms and landscapes, receives permission from the East India Company to work in Calcutta as an engraver. India can be a good market for the artist: Pictures show the foreign country, create a link between the distant subcontinent and the British homeland, at the same time serve their desires and dreams of oriental exoticism, of magnificent buildings like from the fairy tales of 1001 nights. But pictures also show the new colonial architecture that is just emerging, the administrative buildings of the British and document the British claim to power in India. And last but not least, pictures decorate the residences of the British, the "expatriates", in Calcutta. For seven years, until 1793, Thomas Daniell and his 16-year-old nephew William Daniell traveled through India, which at that time meant: on foot or on horseback, with ox carts, in a boat, up the Ganges from Calcutta to Srinagar, from Madras across Mysore and finally to Bombay. Her sketches and watercolors show intimidatingly "modern" English barracks and government residences, depict exotic palaces, mausoleums, pagodas, monuments, ruins, temples, often transfigured into fairy tales and superficially nothing but picturesquely placed amidst the "exotic" Indian landscape. Hardly once do people appear in them, and if they do, then usually only dimly. In her city views, Calcutta is a generous, dazzlingly white city in the neoclassical style. No trace in her pictures of war and misery (but in the diaries of William Daniell).
Their Indian buildings, set as landmarks in the landscape, look like architectural models - and there's a reason for that: a camera obscura allowed them to view objects at great distances in detail and perspective - almost like taking a photograph. Through a hole in the wall of a locked, dark room or box, the light beam penetrates and "casts" the inverted but very accurate image onto the opposite wall or screen. This helps capture proportions, outlines and points correctly for the human eye on a surface, in 2D. The Daniells made a drawing right on the spot and produced oil paintings, engravings, and aquatint etchings, "painterly" ink-like etchings with strong color gradients, from some of the designs while still in Calcutta. Great examples of this process include Francisco de Goya's "Caprichos."
However, sales of their artwork did not go as well as expected in India, plus the Daniells were in failing health. Back in England, they created 144 aquatints beginning in 1795 for their "Oriental Scenery" project, an exclusive series distributed by subscription of two engravings every two months. The complete bound work of the "Oriental Scenery" with six volumes was not completed until 1808 and is still influential in the style of oriental decor.
India - dream of a better life for Thomas Daniell. India - palaces, Hindu temples, Far East, oriental exoticism. India - shaken by wars, famines, poverty, devastation, social dislocation, resistance to the conquerors. India - object of desire for the British East India Company, trading company for the colonization of the Indian subcontinent.
In 1784, Thomas Daniell, a skilled painter of coats of arms and landscapes, receives permission from the East India Company to work in Calcutta as an engraver. India can be a good market for the artist: Pictures show the foreign country, create a link between the distant subcontinent and the British homeland, at the same time serve their desires and dreams of oriental exoticism, of magnificent buildings like from the fairy tales of 1001 nights. But pictures also show the new colonial architecture that is just emerging, the administrative buildings of the British and document the British claim to power in India. And last but not least, pictures decorate the residences of the British, the "expatriates", in Calcutta. For seven years, until 1793, Thomas Daniell and his 16-year-old nephew William Daniell traveled through India, which at that time meant: on foot or on horseback, with ox carts, in a boat, up the Ganges from Calcutta to Srinagar, from Madras across Mysore and finally to Bombay. Her sketches and watercolors show intimidatingly "modern" English barracks and government residences, depict exotic palaces, mausoleums, pagodas, monuments, ruins, temples, often transfigured into fairy tales and superficially nothing but picturesquely placed amidst the "exotic" Indian landscape. Hardly once do people appear in them, and if they do, then usually only dimly. In her city views, Calcutta is a generous, dazzlingly white city in the neoclassical style. No trace in her pictures of war and misery (but in the diaries of William Daniell).
Their Indian buildings, set as landmarks in the landscape, look like architectural models - and there's a reason for that: a camera obscura allowed them to view objects at great distances in detail and perspective - almost like taking a photograph. Through a hole in the wall of a locked, dark room or box, the light beam penetrates and "casts" the inverted but very accurate image onto the opposite wall or screen. This helps capture proportions, outlines and points correctly for the human eye on a surface, in 2D. The Daniells made a drawing right on the spot and produced oil paintings, engravings, and aquatint etchings, "painterly" ink-like etchings with strong color gradients, from some of the designs while still in Calcutta. Great examples of this process include Francisco de Goya's "Caprichos."
However, sales of their artwork did not go as well as expected in India, plus the Daniells were in failing health. Back in England, they created 144 aquatints beginning in 1795 for their "Oriental Scenery" project, an exclusive series distributed by subscription of two engravings every two months. The complete bound work of the "Oriental Scenery" with six volumes was not completed until 1808 and is still influential in the style of oriental decor.