"This sumptuous book is as fascinating to read as it is to look at." Journal of Asian History
"This book will stand as a major contribution to art history. It provides the first comprehensive analysis of the development of modern art in India after the decline of the traditional schools of miniature painting alongside the general demise of Indian court patronage in the early nineteenth century...Its great strength does, indeed, lie in the human and artistic detail which he supplies about the dozens of greater and lesser artists whose path he chronicles. And his text is closely related to the 200 photographs, many in colour, which illustrate this handsome volume." C.A. Bayly, Times Literary Supplement
"The central theme of the discourse is effectively presented: Does the adaptation from foreign models imposed by colonial rule stimulate the colonized to confront and discover their own identity?" Choice
Product Description
An original study of the history of modern Indian art, this book tells the story of Indian art during the Raj, set against the interplay of colonialism and nationalism. The work addresses the tensions and contradictions that attended the advent of European naturalism in India, as part of the imperial design for the westernization of the elite, and traces the artistic evolution from unquestioning westernization to the construction of Hindu national identity. Through a wide range of literary and pictorial sources, Partha Mitter's work balances the study of colonial cultural institutions with the ideologies of the nationalist and intellectual movements that followed.
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