The White Elephant: The Picturesque in British India

FAIN: FT-56751-09

Romita Ray
Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY 13244-0001)

By the 1790s, the British countryside preoccupied English artists and theorists who debated the relationship between landscape, painting, and garden design. More than any other word, the term "picturesque" was applied frequently to a natural setting to convey its potential for making a pleasing picture. As Britain's colonial ambitions spread across the globe, the picturesque emerged as a powerful aesthetic framework through which a growing empire was made visible. This project is the first systematic investigation of the art of the picturesque in relation to the British Raj by examining how it was used to depict the Indian geography and peoples within the larger framework of British colonial culture and imperial politics. I anticipate undertaking my research between June 5 and August 5, 2009.

Associated Products

"Under the Banyan Tree: Relocating the Picturesque in British India" (Book)
Title: "Under the Banyan Tree: Relocating the Picturesque in British India"
Author: Romita Ray
Editor: Emily Lees
Editor: Gillian Malpass
Abstract: Under the Banyan Tree is the first comprehensive study of the evolution and flourishing of the picturesque during the British Raj. Romita Ray argues that this concept allowed British artists and writers traveling in India to aestheticize the Indian landscape, its people, and the biota (the banyan tree and the elephant, above all). These ideas not only shaped specific landscapes in India, but also fed the imagination of a global audience throughout the British empire. The material in this engaging text ranges from river landscapes and tea plantations to elephants and bejeweled Indian princes, shedding light on how the concepts of picturesque beauty and pleasure were diversified in India, sometimes dramatically beyond their conventional parameters. Exquisitely illustrated with unusual and beautiful images, Under the Banyan Tree is both a starting point for examining the function of the picturesque and an insightful addition to scholarship investigating British art and empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300187694
Publisher: Yale University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780300187694
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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