An orientalist perspective

  Destination India: Foreign Artists in India 1857-1947, on display at the Janpath-based gallery till 24 August, combines the work of a number of orientalist artists who immersed themselves in India in varying degrees.
  There are the usual fixations, such as the Taj Mahal and the ghats of Benaras, and also those who devoted themselves to the cityscape – depicting life as it unfolded on colonial-era streets.
  There's a specific gaze that accompanied these artists, a fascination laced with condescension. At a curatorial walk last week, Tillotson laid out the facts: “They exoticise, they mysticise, they romanticise.”
  While it's easy to view the artists in question as a monolith, the purview of their work expanded as time progressed. The “original” orientalist artists who visited as guests of the British Empire following the revolt of 1857 – William Simpson, William Hodges, vand Thomas Daniell – maintained a more moony-eyed, traditionally colonial disposition. There were also those with different styles and repertoire.
  The British landscape artist, Daniell, kept a journal while painting. His writing suggests that he was annoyed by the presence of pilgrims as he painted the ghats. “In the paintings, they disappear,” said Tillotson.