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Article: Artists from afar: company painters in the princely courts of India 1770-1900.
- Article from:
- Marg, A Magazine of the Arts
- Article date:
- June 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Marg Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Up until 1770 few European artists had ventured beyond the confines of their own continent. Frans Post, a Dutch landscape artist, had travelled to Brazil in the dosing years of the 17th century and painted poetic scenes of the Portuguese settlements around the coast. But a visual concept of India and its people was largely unknown to the European public until the arrival of numerous painters in the subcontinent in the last 30 years of the 18th century.
The reasons for this sudden change are various. India's legendary riches had long attracted adventurers and traders. But after 1757, a series of wars and diplomatic manoeuvres saw the rapid expansion of the East ...