Page 22 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

PAINTING 19

The third trend looked exceptional to a certain extent. It was known as ‘Mica Art’ for
the use of its rather unique medium. In this technique, the drawing was done on the
mica surface by incision and then a print of it was made on glass. When a transparent
paper was pasted on the glass and held against the light the drawing became evident.
This process of art was widely in use in religious festivals in Murshidabad at that time.
The company painters usually used paper imported from Europe. There were
numerous works done in pencil and in sepia wash on these papers, as well as drawings
and sketches in black and red inks. This painting style was an assimilation of the
rendering of the natural light and shade of the west, characteristics of the late
provincial Mughal art and some elements of the local folk art.
When the Company painters started to produce their works for the British in the later
part of the eighteenth century their primary objective was to record the enchanting
beauty of Indian nature and the mysterious life of the Indian people. This viewpoint
started to change considerably from the middle of the nineteenth century. The
Industrial Revolution in Europe, which culminated in the introduction of the railway
and the improvements in communication systems, started to reveal the mysteries of
India before the eyes of the west. The invention of the camera, in particular, prompted
in reducing the demand of the painters for recording scenes. Consequently the
necessity of Company art, patronized by the British, came to an end.
The British had, in general, rejected Indian traditional art as inferior to theirs.
Company art, an unfamiliar and hybrid art, which originated with their direct
patronization, had little relation with the socio-cultural and psychological phenomena
of the people of this land. Nor can its artistic values be regarded as being of high
standard. As a result, the cessation of this imposed art trend was inevitable when the
patronization and other facilities ended.
The influence of the British traders in Bengal was, however, increasing long before the
victory at Plassey, more specifically, from the time of Nawab Alivardi Khan. Though
the decisive victory at Plassey did occur in 1757 and thus the British colonial rule over
Bengal, that is, over India, commenced, the real expansion of the colony started
around 1770. The importance of Kolkata, which was the center of administrative
activities of the British colonial rulers, started to increase from this period and
Murshidabad gradually became a declining city. As Mughal rule as a comprehensive
political power in India waned on the one hand and the influences of the British ‘East
India Company’ increased on the other, western cultures and ways of life began to
invade a mediaeval India.
There came a great change in the political structure of India when, after the Sepoy
Mutiny in 1857, the Company rule ended and India was brought under the direct
governance of the British Empire. Kolkata started to gain importance as the
administrative center of India, thus culminating the decline of Murshidabad. Artists
from Murshidabad started to migrate to Kolkata in search of new patrons. However,
the first patron of these artists in Kolkata was Mary Impey, the wife of the Justice