Air to which the Cobra de Copella or hooded snake dances, reads the 300- year-old art-work with 22 musical instruments etched on it displayed for the first time at the Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH), Kolkata
This is one of the 50 art works of Captain Charles Gold, a military officer of British India with the collection of the VMH. These drawings were made between 1791-1798, while he was serving in military campaigns against Tipu Sultan. The art works by the British military officer were titled ‘Oriental Drawings’.
“This is the first time the VMH has put on display the art works of Caption Charles Gold. We were looking for an art-work to be displayed on the world music day earlier this month and we came across this art- work,” Jayanta Sengupta, secretary and curator Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata told The Hindu.
The art work, aquatint on paper with the dimension of 26x33 cm is displayed as the object of the month in the Prince Hall of VMH. The names of all 22 musical instruments depicted in the image including , the Magoudi or snake pipe, Serinda or Bengal violin, different kind of bagpipes and cymbals among are put up by the VMH for the people visiting the gallery.
Dr Sengupta, describes this artwork as important piece of oriental art and what makes it more interesting that has not come from professional painter like the Thomas and William Daniel and Thomas Zoffany. The VMH has the largest collection of Daniels (78 paintings) and eight works of Johann Zoffany.
“Other than professional painters there were many people who served as engineers as military officers and made a number of drawings and paintings inIndia,” the curator said.
Visual politics of the Empire
He explained that these oriental artworks where the British officers serving inIndia are having their first encounters with the country were much in demand inBritain in the early 19 th century.“These paintings should be viewed in the context of the visual politics of the Empire and as part of the bigger narrative of the relationship the British had with India,” he said. The other art works Captain Charles Gold, which are in the collection of VMH, include snake charmers, beggars, devotee and Brahmins.
Dr Sengupta said that Captain Charles Gold is no exception and the VMH collection has a number of art works by amateur artists in the early late 18th and early 19th century. The curator gave the example of VMH’s large collection of lithographs of a military engineer William Cornwallis Harris of wild animals in southern Africa published in 1839.