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| Related Articles: Outline Of Sikh Art http://sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/7cc90cd68046ccaf872568140071a73f!OpenDocument Book Review: Sikh Heritage In Paintings http://sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/89e6e64b1ad86335872567ee0055c73d!OpenDocument Remnants Of A Glorious Past http://sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/c25e57effb04b4568725681f0053def9!OpenDocument ************************************************************* I will post the Foreword and the Preface to this book. *********************************************************** Book: Sikh Portraits By European Artists Author: F.S. Aijazuddin Publisher: Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications ISBN# 0 85667 059 6 PREFACE I met Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his relatives by accident. Our family had known them for years, one might say with truth for generations. I was introduced to them in 1965 by my father, Fakir Waheeduddin, while he was prepairing a family memoir (The Real Ranjit Singh, 1965) on the relationship between the Sikh Maharaja and his Muslim courtiers - the three Fakir brothers Azizuddin, Nuruddin and Imamuddin. My father needed a copy of the ivory portrait of our lineal ancestor Fakir Nuruddin and, as I was studying in London at that time, he directed me to obtain it from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Dutifully, I called on the Keeper of the Indian Section in the Museum and was embarrased to discover that I knew far less about our family friends than I ought to have known and the Keeper knew far more than I had imagined. The Keeper (late Dr) W.G. Archer had just sent the manuscript of his 'Paintings Of The Sikhs' to press, a pioneering assesment of that very period of Punjab history during which the Fakir brothers had attained such unexpected prominence. In his monograph, W.G. Archer discussed the role of the Sikhs as patrons of painting in the 18th and 19th centuries and examined in considerable detail the influence such patronage had had on the output of local Punjabi artists working in the hills and the plains. He also recounted the circumstances in which the Sikhs, posing often with deceptive nonchalance, were portrayed by amateur and professional European artists venturing into the Punjab in the twilight years of its existence as a separate kingdom. While the works of local artists could claim a certain domestic authenticity, it was infact through the sketches and paintings of these European artists that the flamboyant cavalier-like personalities of the Sikh court at Lahore came to life for their European contemporaries - and for me, generations later. Through Emily Eden's portraits I had become familiar with important Sikh rulers and rajas. Published as lithographs under the title 'Portraits Of The Princes And People Of India' (London, 1844), each of her sketches was a perceptive character study. She contained each subject with a separate composition, isolating him from his peers, and with subtlety exposed his volatile individuality. Similarly through the works of another amateur artist, Charles Hardinge, who visited Lahore in 1846 as A.D.C. to his father Lord Hardinge, then Governor-General, I encountered newer personalities such as the young Maharaja Dalip Singh, who had matured physically as well as politically since Miss Eden's earlier visit in 1838. Hardinge had amplified the range of his 'Recollections Of India' (London, 1847) by augmenting his portraits with views of various historical sites in the Punjab and Kashmir. He included views of Lahore, the crenellated walls of its Fort, the marble "baradari" or pavilion within the Fort associated with Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and the Hazuri Bagh pavilion frequented by Maharaja Sher Singh, every scene the setting for some traumatic incident which had occured during this period of Sikh rule. It was however through the oil-paintings of August Schoefft, the Hungarian painter, that both the characters and the back-cloth of the drama seemed to be brought together to maximum effect. In 1855, August Schoefft had completed a monumental composition portraying the Sikh Darbar, to which he gave the title 'Der Hof von Lahore' (The Court of Lahore) when it was first exhibited in Vienna that year. In this he presented paragraphs of Punjab history compressed into one coherent pictorial essay. This painting together with smaller portraits and landscapes by Schoefft and other European artists, was acquired by Maharaja Dalip Singh and his family and the collection was ultimately bought by the Government of Pakistan in 1957 from the legatee of Princess Bamba Sutherland, Dalip Singh's daughter. The collection was displayed appropriately in the Lahore Fort, in a delightful gallery designed specially for it, the decor echoeing the arches and pink embroidered blinds seen in Schoefft's darbar picture. For any student of Sikh art-history, as I had by then irrevocably become, the attraction of the princess Bamba Collection was irresistible. Here was a wealth of pictorial material, spanning more than a century, from the time the great Maharaja ruled the Punjab from Lahore until the last of his line died there in 1957, paralleling the century of association between our families. It contained paintings showing Ranjit Singh in darbar and at prayers, portraits of Sher Singh enthroned and in council, informal sketches of Rani Jindan, and poignant glimpses of a waning Dalip Singh and his hapless children - each, in Chekov's words, 'the subject of a short story,' each demanding a separate biographical appreciation by a family friend. The first part of my study, I hope, fulfils that demand. The second part concentrates on the Sikh Court as it appears in Schoefft's painting and is in consonance with Schoefft's original purpose. The catalogue to the 1855 exhibition had contained brief biographical and explanatory notes to most of the figures identified by Schoefft. It was logical, therefore, when appraising the painting in detail to maintain the spirit of Schoefft's approach, to provide fuller information on each character and to explain in certain cases why Schoefft should have included some of them at all. The exhibition catalogue was not only the key to 'The Court Of Lahore' painting but also the essential clue to Schoefft's basic intentions when composing the painting. Dr Mildred Archer's willingness to search for and obtain a copy of the Schoefft catalogue was as characteristic an act as that of her husband's generous and consistent encouragement of my research into Sikh art history. The 'single rose' of my earliest meeting with Dr Archer in the Victoria and Albert Museum has indeed since become a garden. Dr M.S. Randhawa, equally a mentor and a friend, has unhesistatingly contributed a scholarly foreword. It has meant more to me than I can express. To Jane Boulenger, Ann Jackson and Philip Wilson of Philip Wilson Publishers I shall remain permanently grateful. Our collaboration on my earlier book, 'Pahari Paintings and Sikh Portraits in the Lahore Museum' was conducted from a distance, across continents. No one could have understood more sensitively the aspirations of an author for his first book, and no one could have done more than they have to fulfil them so gloriously. Their achievement with its successor is no less. For moments of communion on the subject with Mr Khalid Iqbal, Professor of Painting, National College of Arts, Lahore; for the incentive to work on the Princess Bamba Collection and constructive assistance thereafter from Mr Ahmad Nabi Khan, Superintendent, Department of Archaeology, Lahore; to Mr Peter Egger, formerly Lecturer in German, Punjab University, Lahore for translating the original catalogue of Schoefft's exhibition; and to Mr Mohammad Sarwar who typed the manuscript; to all of them, I have pleasure in recording my gratitude. I am obliged also to Mr Ishtiaque Khan, Director, Department of Archeology, Government of Pakistan, for permission to reproduce the portraits from the Princess Bamba Collection, Lahore Fort Museum, and to Mr Zafar Ahmad for taking the colour photographs there. Portraits from the Royal Collection, Osborne House, and from the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle, are reproduced by gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen. Grateful acknowledgements are made also to the India Office Library and Records, London, Punjab Records Office, Lahore and the Victoria ans Albert Museum, London, for permission to reproduce items from their collections. To my darling wife Shahnaz, I shall always be deeply indebted for her continual encouragement and for taking the trouble to read almost all the books I have on the subject in order to understand me better. F.S. Aijazuddin Lahore, 1977 ********************************************* FOREWORD During the first half of the 19th century a number of European adventurers came to the Punjab. Some came to seek their fortune, others just out of curiousity to see the country, its people and a remarkable ruler. Out of these travellers, Hugel, Burnes, Vigne and the botanist Jacquemont have left perceptive accounts of the Punjab and its ruler, Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Among those attracted by the lure of the romantic East was August Schoefft, a Hungarian painter. Schoefft's grandfather, also a painter, was born in Germany and migrated to Budapest in Hungary where he purchased a house. The street in which the house was situated is still called Kepiro Utea, i.e. the Street Of Painters after the profession of Joseph. It was here that August was born in 1809. In 1828, he studied art in Vienna, followed by seven years' travel in Italy, France and Switzerland. In 1835 he returned to Budapest and lived in a hotel where he painted and sold portraits and landscapes. There he fell in love with the daughter of a penniless officer, whom he married against the wishes of his father. This event set him off on his travels again and accompanied by his wife, he visited Odessa and Constantinople. He passed through Arabia, Persia and India sketching picturesque characters. On 14 November 1841, Schoefft reached Lahore, was accepted as a guest by Martin Honigberger, a Rumanian who attended the then Maharaja, Sher Singh, and painted portraits of Sher Singh and his principal courtiers. It seems that Schoefft's paintings were acquired by or for Maharaja Dalip Singh who lived as a congenial exile in England. One of Dalip Singh's daughters, Princess Bamba Jindan, married a certain Colonel Sutherland and settled in Lahore. Sutherland was a well-known doctor who enjoyed esteem among those of his profession. Mrs Sutherland died in Lahore at the age of eighty-eight on 10 March 1957, bequeathing her property, including Schoefft's paintings to her secretary, Pir Karim Baksh Supra, who sold them to the Government of Pakistan. Through these paintings as well as through contemporary accounts of travellers, F.S. Aijazudding reconstructs the history of Punjab during the Sikh period. he himself is a scion of the famous Fakir family who enjoyed the trust and confidence of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He is therefore not only a scholar and an art critic but brings to the present study a personal enthusiasm for the period. Amongst the color plates are two remarkable paintings by Schoefft which provide us with a glimpse of the Courts of Ranjit Singh and Sher Singh. One of them depicts Ranjit Singh on a visit to Darbar Sahib at Amritsar where he is shown seated on a cushion listening to granthis. The boy playing near him and holding a hawk, previously identified as Dalip Singh, is shown by Aijazuddin to be a war orphan. Schoefft records that war orphans were maintained by Ranjit Singh and given half their father's salary until they reached the age of fifteen. This type of charity by the Sikh ruler, formerly overlooked, is here emphasised for the first time. Aijazuddin's prime concern, however, is with a detailed analysis of Schoefft's large painting, sixteen feet by ten feet, entitled, 'The Court Of Lahore'. This contains over hundred figures and is divided by Aijazuddin into five main groups. He provides biographical notes on forty-nine of the principal characters as well as comments on the dress of Akalis, troopers, falconers, gatekeeprs, servants and others. Apart from its importance from the point of view of the history of the Punjab, this remarkable painting presents in a coherent whole the dramatis personae who succeeded the great Ranjit Singh. Unable to control a turbulent army which could not find an outlet for its energies, they were themselves destroyed in a fraticidal struggle. The army, though led by treacheous generals, fought bravely and almost defeated the British forces at Ferozeshah and Challianwala. It was ultimately defeated at Gujrat in 1849 and the Punjab was annexed by the British. Aijazuddin continues the history of the Sikh dynasty by following the careers of Dalip Singh and Rani Jindan during their eclipse in India and exile in Europe. They were vividly illustrated in further works by Beechey, Schoefft, Goldingham, Winterhalter, Richmond and even Queen Victoria herself. Here in fact is a history of the Sikh rulers from the late 18th to the late 19th century presented with vividness and feeling. Written in a witty, sparkling style, this work is an outstanding contribution to art history by a scholar who combines both knowledge and love of the Punjab with acute observation and unusual aesthetic sensibility. M.S. Randhawa ************************************************************* |
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