Indian Painters of Colonial Era (1750 - 1950 AD)

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This book is first of its kind documentation of significant practicing painters and sculptors of Pre-Independence Indian subcontinent between 1750-1950 It includes names of almost 3000 artists from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India before independence.

In the absence of a legitimate record of the names of these forgotten artists, contemporary authors of Indian art history have missed or ignored mentioning the names of artists, often describing this period of two hundred years (1750-1950) as the 'Colonial Period or Post Mughal Period' or by 'Provincial Schools' This book endeavours to document and give recognition to those artists whose names have been lost in the annals of history.

It is a useful reference book for scholars and students with an interest in Art from the Indian subcontinent.

Roop Narayan Batham (Born 1943) is an art historian, lexi- cographer and museologist. In his illustrious career, spanning over 50 years, he has been credited with producing and converting academic and general reference material on global art in Hindi and other Indian languages. To support non-English speaking students and teachers in India, he has compiled art reference books like, Definitional Dictionary of Global Art Terms (English-Hindi) which contains 17 disciplines of Indian fine arts. The book is being translated and published by Govt. of India in 22 approved languages. Roop Narayan's other works on General Encyclopedia of Global Art (Hindi- English) and Standard Dictionary of Modern Creative and Vocational Arts (English-Hindi) are in progress.

I am glad to know that Shri Roop Narayan Batham has compiled a National Register of Pre-Independence Indian Painters & Sculptors (1750-1950). These 200 years during which we were under British rule did saw the emergence of several schools of painting, but these have not been adequately documented. Shri Roop Narayan Batham and his daughter Nimisha deserve commendation for the massive work they have done, including 3500 names of various artists from around the country. Many of the princely States and kingdoms had their own local painters whose work gives us fascinating glimpses into the social life of those times. I congratulate the author for this pioneering work which needs to be developed and enlarged by other art lovers and academicians in the future.

This book is a documentation of significant practicing painters and sculptors of Greater Pre-Independence India between 1750 and 1950. The task of collecting this scattered material of Colonial-era to the united India, lead to search for names of artists from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and of course India.

Though artworks of the period from 1750 to 1950 feature in many private collections and museums in India and abroad but in many cases, the names of painters and date of execution of the paintings or murals are not accounted for, due to various reasons, including but not limited to, lapses at the time of acquisition of the work. In this register, I have tried to record almost 3000 names of practicing Indian artists, gathered assiduously from National Archives, Museum Records, rare old Journals and Books, and present living family members of deceased artists.

In the absence of a legitimate record of the names of these forgotten artists, contemporary authors of Indian art history have missed or ignored mentioning the names of artists, often describing this period of two hundred years (1750-1950) as the 'Colonial Period' or 'Post Mughal Period', with a short description of a few painting styles of Provincial Schools. As a result, names of many famous court painters under the patronage of Kings, Nawabs, and local rulers have been pushed into oblivion, with their works described in generalized terms.

This book is first of its kind and a small step towards giving recognition to these lost artists, sincerely hoping that any gaps left here will be filled by future historians and researchers.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages