Kolkata to host rare showcase of Bengal through Flemish artist’s eyes

Kolkata: The Alipore Museum in collaboration with the Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), is bringing to Kolkata for the first time a rare documentation of the people and material culture that the Flemish artist, Francois Baltazard Solvyns encountered over the decade he lived in Bengal during the 1790s. Born and trained in Antwerp, Belgium, Solvyns came to India in the hope of making his fortune.

The artist arrived in Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta) in 1791 and lived here for over a decade. Working in Calcutta without permission from the board of the East India Company, he stayed on the margins of European society and engaged with all aspects of Indian life that teemed around him.

While picking up odd jobs, he embarked on an ambitious project to produce a comprehensive survey of ‘the manners, customs and dresses of the Hindus’. His work focuses on the people in Bengal and the neighbouring regions. Four huge volumes, titled Les Hindoûs (‘The Hindus’) contain a series of etchings made by Solvyns, presenting an encyclopedic vision of the people and customs of eastern India at the end of the 18th Century.

The first edition, with 250 hand-coloured etchings, was published in Calcutta between 1796 and 1799. It was not commercially successful and Solvyns returned to Europe. Undaunted by his setback, in 1808-12, he published in Paris a second, enlarged edition, with bilingual descriptive text in French and English and some additional plates, making a total of 288.

“The works to be exhibited at Alipore Museum are taken from a complete set of the Paris version,” said Jayanta Sengupta, Director of Alipore Museum.

The exhibition titled “People of Bengal: Coloured etchings by F. Baltazard Solvyns will open for the public on Saturday, April 26 in the Exhibition Hall of the Museum and will continue till July 5.

It will be open from 12 noon to 6 pm everyday,

except Mondays.