Page 173 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

170 ART AND CRAFTS

transparent watercolors; besides which they also did very realistic sketches;
consequently they made engravings and published albums for sale. These artists also
made a considerable amount of money from this. Hodges first published Select Views
of India (1786-88), following in his footsteps Thomas and William Daniell published
Oriental Scenery (1795-1808) and Picturesque Voyage of India. Charles D’Oyly also
printed engravings from many sketches with Dhaka and Kolkata as his subject; the
artists did some of these engravings themselves while some of the work was also
executed by professional engravers. Thomas and William Daniell engraved all their
work themselves and also printed them themselves without any other assistance. The
engravings of Charles D’Oyly were completed by the Royal Engraver of London.
However, he himself was enthusiastic about this medium. He set up a lithography
machine where he worked at Patna (1831) and did the printing himself. Later, after the
establishment of ‘The Calcutta School of Industrial Art’ (1854) engraving, wood cut
and lithography were taught according to the academic method and an institutional
foundation was gradually established for printmaking.
An Introduction to Prints Based on Dhaka during the Company Rule
Charles D’Oyly was an English civilian. He was employed as a Collector in Dhaka
from 1808 to 1811. Painting was his hobby. Engaged in duties in Dhaka he drew
pictures of various historical structures. Later, he printed these pictures from
engravings and published them in an album which is known by the name Antiquities
of Dhaka. This is not just an album of pictures, this is a book and a thoroughly
research-based volume in which the history of the middle age of Dhaka town has
found its place. These pictures present an image of Dhaka as it was at the beginning
of the nineteenth century. Dhaka, which was the capital of the province of Bengal
during the Mughal rule, has been captured in the sketches of D’Oyly in a state of
decline (fig.3.1). It is presumed that the pictures were executed between the years
1808 and 1811, but they were published in the form of an engraved book between the
fig. 3.1 Charles D`Oyly, years 1824 and 1830. The engravings of this book published from London were
Part of the Interior of executed by the Royal Engraver John Landseer F.M.A. The engravings were executed
the City of Dacca, with great skill. The art of engraving, the development of which had started in the
engraving
times of the Italian Renaissance in the
fifteenth century, had attained
sufficient maturity in the nineteenth
century, the proof of that can be seen in
these pictures. Although executed in a
studio of London, these engravings
may still be taken as an initial example
of prints related to Dhaka, even if the
growth of the art of engraving or other
prints by the artists of Dhaka happened
nearly a hundred and fifty years later.