Collecting Indian Painting in the West: Pictures and Personalities

The story of western exposure to Indian painting is rife with drama, enormous egos, and fascinating history. The first Indian paintings known to have come to the West are in the Laud Ragamala album presented by William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to the Bodleian Library in Oxford around 1640, just a few decades after its creation and a few years before Laud was executed by order of Oliver Cromwell.  This less than auspicious beginning augured a checkered future for the collection of Indian painting, which, not surprisingly, was closely linked to the British colonial enterprise.  Another early collector was the brilliant and eccentric William Beckford, whose 18^th century collecting career coincided with the gradual dispersal of the Moghul imperial library.

Collecting waxed and waned until the early 20^th century when the renowned scholar, A.K. Coomaraswamy, produced the 1916 study, Rajput Painting, that opened Western eyes. Coomaraswamy’s collecting formed the basis for the seminal collection in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  Indian independence and partition generated still another wave of interest, leading to the creation of more public and private collections of great importance, contributing to a Golden Age whose like will not be seen again soon.

Dr. Daniel Ehnbom is Associate Professor of South Asian Art at the University of Virginia and adjunct curator of South Asian art at UVA Art Museum.  Among his numerous publications on Indian art and architecture is Indian Minatures: The Ehrenfled Collection.