Around 200 years ago, a well-known English noble lady, Emily Eden, accomplished and talented, explored North India, and she preserved her experience through art and words.
The precious artwork by Emily Eden is on display in Delhi at DAG Janpath till 1st August. The exhibition theme: Prince and People of India. Her artwork consisted of 30 hand-colored lithographs, and her family archives were also on display.
Emily Eden, a correspondent of Queen Victoria and the sister of the governor general of India. Her art pieces depict that she had visited so many places in India, like Calcutta, Lahore, Punjab, and Kabul, but she did not visit Delhi.
Emily Eden believed Delhi had “nothing to see.” At that time, Delhi was under the rule of the Mughal Sultanate, under King Bahadur Shah Zafar.
Emily Eden made her first portrait in India of a young student who had come from the Hindu college in Calcutta. The Mary Ann, a well-known art historian, organised an exhibition, she said.
She portrayed the young man who wore a turban, jewels, and a robe. Emily’s artwork reflects the richness of the early nineteenth century in Calcutta, India.
Punjab becomes a source of artistic inspiration for her, offering a wide range of subjects to paint. According to the curator of the art exhibition, Mary Ann Prior, Emily Potairt’s painting of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, which she painted during the last stage of her life, beautifully captures his simplicity and physical frailty while also reflecting the authority and dignity that defined his reign.
Between Calcutta and Lahore, she drew a lot of portraits of the Maharaja of India, Raja Nahun (present-day Himachal), the prince of Simla, the Raja of Patiala (Putteella) on his elephants, zameendars, fakirs, nawabs, and the (“Thibat Tartars”) traders of Tibet.
There was no sketch of Delhi found. Although the fort in the background of Maratha nobleman Raja Hindu Rao, brother-in-law of Maharaja Daulat Ram Scindia of Gwalior
May have been in Delhi, she could not confirm the location. Since the fort came across the Indian subcontinent at the time.
Emily Eden spent a week in Delhi, which felt like a ghost town. She wrote a letter to her nephew William Daniell and wrote city was surrounded by the ruins of the grand palace and mosque