Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

A catalogue of the Ashmolean’s collection of Indian art by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield (published Oxford, 1987).

Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

Publications online: 143 objects

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Figure of a standing Dutchman wearing a red coat

  • Literature notes

    This pained, half life-sized figure of a European is flat and unfinished at the back and may once have been mounted as a freestanding sculpture on a rectangular stand. The subject is most likely modelled on the Dutch East India Company officers who resided in some numbers at Surat in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and travelled from there to Agra and the U.P. region to buy textiles and indigo. This Dutchman wears a typical red coat, with the addition of an Indian floral pattern, and with yellow trimmings and large pockets on the outside. He is red-lipped and his periwig, carved with pronounced curls, was formerly black.

    Figures of firangīs (“Franks” or Europeans) began to appear as exotic decorative features in the 18th century, for example in the palace building at Udaipur in Rajasthan and at Bhuj in Kutch. The latter became an important centre of European artistic influence, due to the innovations of the legendary Rām Siṅgh Malam, “the Navigator”, who is said to have thrice visited Europe and introduced a wide range of Western technical skills on his return.
  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaIndiawest India Gujarat (place of creation)
    Date
    18th century (1701 - 1800)
    Material and technique
    wood, painted
    Dimensions
    89 x 27.5 x 18 cm sight size (height x width x depth)
    with stand 89 x 33 x 31 cm (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    organicvegetal wood
    Technique index
    formed carved,
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Purchased, 1968.
    Accession no.
    EA1968.42
  • Further reading

    Harle, J. C., and Andrew Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987), no. 105 on p. 93, illus. p. 93

Location

    • currently in research collection

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Publications online

  • Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

    Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

    This pained, half life-sized figure of a European is flat and unfinished at the back and may once have been mounted as a freestanding sculpture on a rectangular stand. The subject is most likely modelled on the Dutch East India Company officers who resided in some numbers at Surat in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and travelled from there to Agra and the U.P. region to buy textiles and indigo. This Dutchman wears a typical red coat, with the addition of an Indian floral pattern, and with yellow trimmings and large pockets on the outside. He is red-lipped and his periwig, carved with pronounced curls, was formerly black.

    Figures of firangīs (“Franks” or Europeans) began to appear as exotic decorative features in the 18th century, for example in the palace building at Udaipur in Rajasthan and at Bhuj in Kutch. The latter became an important centre of European artistic influence, due to the innovations of the legendary Rām Siṅgh Malam, “the Navigator”, who is said to have thrice visited Europe and introduced a wide range of Western technical skills on his return.
Notice

Object information may not accurately reflect the actual contents of the original publication, since our online objects contain current information held in our collections database. Click on 'buy this publication' to purchase printed versions of our online publications, where available, or contact the Jameel Study Centre to arrange access to books on our collections that are now out of print.

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