Feature: THE BIG PICTURE - Exhibition - Indian Armies at the National Army Museum
Published: 20 May 2010
PART of Britain’s imperial story in what was known as the Jewel of the Empire can be explored at a new exhibition at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. A metal tiger, an ivory chess set, watercolours of Indian soldiers and miniature paintings presented by Maharaja Ranjit Singh will be on display as part of the exhibition called Indian Armies, Indian Art: Soldiers, Collectors and Artists 1780-1880.
The objects cast a spotlight on cultural exchange in the period when colonial rule was being forged in the subcontinent. Throughout Britain’s relationship with India, which began when the East India Company started trading with the vast land in 1617, there was fusion of British and Indian cultures – and a fascination among British people with Indian culture, as illustrated in the books of Rudyard Kipling.
Such fascination was never more apparent than in the early years of the British Raj, as can be seen in the watercolours, intricate sculptures and miniature paintings on show at the Museum, which were created by local artists, usually for a European audience hungry for such exotica.
The highlight of the exhibition is a series of eight paintings commissioned by Colonel James Skinner, an officer of the Bengal Army whose father was Scottish and whose mother was Rajput. The paintings were commissioned by him to record his life and exploits, from images of a regimental durbar hosted by Skinner to St James’s Church in Delhi, which he built – in addition to a mosque and a Hindu temple.
Many of the paintings have never been exhibited before, and this is the first time that the Museum’s collection of Skinner paintings have been displayed together.
The British East India Company ruled India in the early 1800s and created the Bengal, Madras and Bombay presidencies, each with its own army of Indian soldiers and British officers.
This rule lasted until 1858, after the Mutiny in the Bengal Army when power was transferred to the British Crown and the armies of the presidencies were merged to form the British Indian Army.
After the Indian Independence Act of 1947 and the subsequent partition of the country, the British Indian Army was divided between India and Pakistan and British Army units returned to the UK.
• Pictured above: ‘King Thibaw talking with Colonel Sladen in the North Garden of his palace, Mandalay’, 1885.
• Indian Armies, Indian Art: Soldiers, Collectors and Artists 1780-1880, White Space Gallery, National Army Museum,
Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, SW3. Until January 2011. Admission Free. Daily from 10am-5.30pm.
020 7730 0717.www.national-army-museum.ac.uk