Emily Eden (1797-1869) was the 7th daughter of the 14 children of William Eden, 1st Baron of Auckland. Her eldest sibling was George Eden, better known to students of Indian History as the 1st Earl of Auckland, Governor-General of India (1836-1842). She was born into a blue-blooded family of achievers and in early life was inspired by her mother, who was an independent-minded woman, who travelled extensively with her highly placed husband and took an active interest in public affairs along with him.

Emily grew up to be a versatile and gifted woman and became a successful novelist, a painter and a writer of a book entitled "Up the Country" (pub. 1866) that described through her letters, her journey with her brother and his retinue, from Kolkata to Shimla. Besides "Up the Country" she wrote two novels "The Semi-Detached House" (1859) and "The Semi-Attached Couple" (1860). All of her books were received well by the reading public.

But it is as a painter that she is being re-introduced to the public consciousness through the current exhibition. J. Dickinson published her paintings for the first time in 1844 in a collection called "Princes and People of India". Her paintings were executed in watercolour and depicted, as the title suggests, the entire cross-section of Indian society of that day: at least to the extent of her knowledge. Twenty-three sketches of Ms. Eden were published in that volume as lithographs.

On October 21st, 1837 Lord Auckland accompanied rather reluctantly by his sister, set out from Calcutta on board the 'Megna' a flat or long barge towed by a steamer. They alighted at Benares and went on foot to Shimla. In November 1838 he went from Shimla to Lahore to meet the Maharaja and returned to Shimla in mid- March 1839. At the end of October he reached Benares from Shimla by land and thence took the riparian route once more to reach Calcutta in March 1840 after a two and a half year absence.

The Route

This exhibition reveals the artistic sensitivity of Ms. Eden, her eye for detail and for the way she kept her wits and her sense of humor about her during a gruelling journey in a land whose climate can be trying to the hardiest of constitutions.

The present exhibition is based on an acquisition of Ms. Eden's artwork consisting of 193 sketches in watercolour made by Victoria Memorial way back in 1911. They are mounted on folio-sized paper and bound in three large volumes. All the twenty-three sketches published by J. Dickinson mentioned earlier are represented in Victoria Memorial's collection.

There is no point in comparing Ms. Eden to Rembrandt or Van Gogh as she is obviously an amateur. As far as the technicalities of her painting are concerned, she painted on drawing paper imported from England. The initial sketch was made by pencil and that was later on invigorated by ink and reed or quill pen. The watercolours she used also came from Europe.

The interesting feature of her watercolours is that her human and animal figures are not drawn with any well-defined background and wherever it is present it is treated rather cursorily. Her focus is, therefore, on the figure itself and she has dispensed with what, she felt, is peripheral.

Ms. Eden's medium of choice was watercolour. Her art can be thematically classified under several headings like a) servants and their relatives, b) professional castes and entertainers, c) hill people, d) people of foreign extraction, e) diviners and fakirs, f) people in the official and semi-official service of the East India Company, g) princes and their retinue and objects, h) the Sikhs, j) monuments, edifices and landscapes and k) miscellaneous topics.

Thus she painted not only the high and mighty but also the commonest of people. Not even the retinue of servants accompanying the entourage escaped her notice. One notices the sympathy and humaneness with which she paints the servants and their relatives. This is in contrast to other painters of European extraction who visited India in the 18th and 19th centuries with the possible exception of F.B. Solvyns the Belgian printmaker and artist.

In general, it must be said, that she is not at her best as a portrait painter but rather she excels in painting landscapes. However, among the attempts at human portraiture her depiction of the Sikhs catches the eye. She was evidently impressed by the dashing Sikhs and managed to capture their debonair quality in her sketches of them. On a more superficial level, she did portray their dazzling costumes and well-decorated horses rather well. Her admiration is testified by her description as well as her sketch of Maharaja Ranjit Singh - "…he has made himself a great king; he has conquered a great many powerful enemies; he is remarkably just in his government; he has disciplined a large army; he hardly ever takes away life…and he is excessively beloved by his people." (5)

Raja Heera Singh, son of the Rajah Dhyan Singh, the Prime Minister of the Punjab and a favourite of Ranjit Singh. 36.8 x 24.6 cm	One of the Sikh attendants of Ajeet Singh. 21 x 15.3 cm	Sher Singh, son of Ranjit Singh 35.7 x 24.5 cm

 

A family of Tartars from Tibet. The goats carried little panniers full of salt for sale. 26 x 36 cm

It was not just the Sikhs but also the hill people as well who caught her sharp eye. She painted non-Indian Asians like the "…Thibet Tartar…" (6) People more than once. Nowhere do we find any trace of prejudice against those and other people in her utterances and her drawings - she was remarkably free from the prevalent racism of the time.

Among the monuments she drew, she preferred to depict not only prominent edifices but also neglected ruins on the wayside. She found the Mughal monuments rather difficult to draw - "…sketching there, for two hours, but it is impossible to make anything of these elaborate Mogul buildings, they are all lines and domes, and uncommonly trying to the patience." (7) That's what she felt about Secundra where Akbar's tomb is located.

Emily Eden was a woman far ahead of her times: she was highly educated, versatile, self-confident and unafraid to express her opinions through her writings and art. Her vibrancy and sensitivity led her to observe the world in a light-hearted yet penetrating manner that had no bitterness in it.

Obviously her artwork is relevant today as a historical document of early 19th century India under the British and of the British Raj itself. It brings to life an India that is no more and has been no more for a long time. She observed history in the making from close quarters, in fact, from the corridors of power itself. Therefore, her artistic and literary testimony is of great value. It is of even more value because she was an intelligent and educated woman interested in world affairs - it was something rare in that day and age.

On the flip side, her account and artwork on the splendours of India would add to the myth of an India of "…barbaric splendours, ablaze with gold and glittering diamonds." (8) Though, to be fair, this may not have been a part of any conscious project.

There is another tidbit of history that Kolkata-dwellers may find interesting and endearing: there is a famous landmark of Kolkata familiar to people all over the Subcontinent, which bears the name of this illustrious lady and her younger sister Fanny - Eden Gardens.
 

The travelogue "Up the Country" describes in a series of letters the grand passage of Emily's illustrious brother the Governor-General of India with an unbelievably pompous retinue of 15,000 people including servants, troops and hangers-on not counting the prodigious number of elephants, camels, horses and bullocks. As she herself writes, "…the men 15,000 (we thought it was only 10,000, but when every regiment we had sent in its full muster-roll, it came to 15,000)." (2)

Emily Eden's watercolours were painted on and about that epic journey from the British capital Calcutta (Kolkata) to the perennially favourite haunt of all Raj officials - Shimla.

Britain's obsession with the Russian advance in Central Asia and Afghanistan was behind Lord Auckland's activities in India at that time. His real intention behind embarking upon such an arduous journey to Shimla was to get an audience with the ruler of the Sikh Empire, a man whose legacy has assumed a legendary aura today - Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Dost Mohammed was the Amir of Afghanistan at that time and he had got there by deposing the unpopular Shah Shuja. The British perceived Dost Mohammed to be hostile to them and friendly to the Russians "…our enemy Dost Mahomed…" (3) as Emily Eden calls him - it has been revealed to be a misconception by later historians. Be that as it may, Lord Auckland and the British now wanted a friendly Amir on the throne of Afghanistan and the choice fell upon Shah Shuja.

Lord Auckland's immediate aims were fulfilled - he reached Lahore via Shimla and concluded a Tripartite Treaty on 26th June 1838 binding the Sikhs, the deposed Shah Shuja representing Afghanistan and, of course, the British in an oath of co-operation regarding the future campaign in Afghanistan. Together they invaded Afghanistan, drove Dost Mohammed out and placed Shah Shuja on the throne. Emily Eden wrote rather gleefully of these initial successes and how the wives of the British officers, who were away on the Afghan campaign, were secure in the knowledge that their husbands were feasting on the apricots and sherbets of that country.

Little did they know then, that the 16,500 troops of the British-Indian army posted to keep the peace among the turbulent Afghan tribes were doomed and that only one man, a certain Dr.Brydon, would make it back alive. This would cost Lord Auckland his job and engender the British policy of Masterly Inactivity regarding Afghanistan.

Soon after Maharaja Ranjit Singh's death in 1839 his glittering empire that Ms Eden wrote sometimes admiringly, sometimes critically but always enthusiastically about would descend into infighting, chaos and ultimately, absorption into the British Empire in India.

 "These details, therefore, of a journey that was picturesque in its motley processions, in its splendid crowds, and in its 'barbaric gold and pearl', may be thought to be amusing. So many changes have taken place in Indian modes of travelling, that these contrasts of public grandeur and private discomfort will probably be seen no more, on a scale of such magnitude."

- Emily Eden, May 1866 (1)

1) Pg. Xvi Emily Eden: Up the Country, Curzon Press, London and Dublin, 1978.
2) Ibid, pg. 210.
3) Ibid, pg. 224.
4) Ibid, pg. 181.
5) Ibid, pg. 209.
6) Ibid, pg. 299.
7) Ibid, pg. 359.
8) Pg. 74, Indira Ghose: Women Travellers in Colonial India: The Power of the Female Gaze. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1998. Quoted in Katherine Blair White - Emily Eden (1797-1869) website english.vt.edu/-jmooney/3044bisa-g/eden.html-7k.

1) Up the Country: Letters written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India by Emily Eden. With an introduction and notes by Edward Thompson. Curzon Press. London and Dublin 1978.

2) Emily Eden's Sketches in Victoria Memorial: A Descriptive Catalogue - Adyanath Mukhopadhyay. Victoria Memorial Kolkata 1988.

3) Emily Eden (1797-1869) - Katherine Blair White in website english.vt.edu/-jmooney/3044bisa-g/eden.html-7k.

4) Website - en.wikipedia.org.

Prince Purtub Singh, seven years old- the son of Shahzada Shere Singh (son of Ranjit Singh) 35.6 x 25 cm	A Persian servant who accompanied Major Todd from Herat to Shimla. 22.6 x 17.6 cm	A native woman dressed for a fete. 26.8 x 20.2 cm
Buxoo Khansama, head servant in the Government House, Calcutta. 34.4 x 24.5 cm	An old Fakeer at Simla 30.5 x 20.1 cm	A Cashmere goat given to Miss Eden by Mr. Trower in 1837. Sent by her to Lady Fitzmaurice and living at Bowood (1844) 31.9 x 22.1 cm

Views taken from Col. Young's bungalow at Massorie in the Himalayas 25.4 x 35.8 cm	The Lhat or pillar of Prince Firouz Shah among the ruins of Delhi. 25.5 x 34.5 cm
The jewel of Ranjit Singh (There are Persian characters engraved on the Ruby). 24.3 x 36.8 cm	Elephant carriage belonging to the Dholepur Rajah 15.6 x 20.5 cm

    PULLDOWN TO SELECT HOME HISTORY THE ARCHITECTURE THE ROYAL GALLERY THE DANIELLS MAJOR COLLECTION HISTORICAL RELICS CALCUTTA GALLERY DEPARTMENTS GARDEN ILLUMINATED MEMORIAL LIBRARY TIMING CURATOR CONTACT US SPECIAL SERVICES ARCHIVE ARMS AND ARMOUR COMPANY SCHOOL DRAWINGS LITHOGRAPHS AND AQUATINTS MUGHAL MINIATURES RARE BOOKS MANUSCRIPTS SCULPTURES POSTAGE STAMPS WESTERN PANTINGS HINDI VERSION