Summer and art collide
In the Exhibition Rooms at Bowood, you will find a beautiful collection of objects from India, showing stunning craftsmanship and a variety of delicate materials. For August’s Object of the Month, I wanted to highlight these incredibly detailed terracotta figures, which date to the late nineteenth century.
Bowood and India
Bowood House has a connection to India through the 5th Marquess (1845-1927) and Marchioness of Lansdowne (1850-1932). Henry Charles Keith succeeded to the title of the Marquess of Lansdowne unexpectedly early upon the death of his father. He was only twenty-one years old and still at university.
He pursued a career in politics, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, and was incredibly successful at it. By twenty-four, he was Junior Lord of the Treasury, and at twenty-seven, Under Secretary of State for War. At thirty-eight, he was offered the role of Governor-General of Canada. This marked the beginning of a long period away from home.
The Lansdownes were in Canada from 1883 to 1888, before going to India in 1888. His appointment as Viceroy of India had been recommended by Queen Victoria, and the Lansdownes arrived in India, in Mumbai (then Bombay) on the 3rd of December of that year. The role of Viceroy was a representative of Queen Victoria in her capacity as Empress of India.
Modelling from life
These twenty-six figures date to the late nineteenth century, when the Lansdownes were in India. They were handmade by an artist called Rakhal Das Pal, who worked in the clay modelling district of Ghurni in Krishnanagar, now in the state of West Bengal. The figures are designed to be realistic portrayals of status in Indian society, reflecting the caste system, and giving each figure an individual expression.
For over two hundred and fifty years, clay dolls have been made in Krishnanagar. During the middle of the eighteenth century, pottery studios were founded by the Maharaja in order to create models for religious worship. These were much more elaborate and artificial in their appearance. As community worship began to be introduced (known as barowari puja), the figures became increasingly natural in their appearance to appeal to and represent more people, extending to images of society and creating whole scenes of everyday life.
By the early nineteenth century, the dolls were being modelled not only for religious purposes, but as souvenirs to visiting Europeans. For Europeans, these models represented Indian people, and the clay dolls were often put on display in many international exhibitions, or world’s fairs. The popularity of these dolls and recognition of the quality of the craftsmanship was such that during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, artists from Krishnanagar went in person to these exhibitions and were commissioned on the spot. In India, art exhibitions would focus on some of the most revered clay doll artists. It is unsurprising that prized objects like these found their way into the Lansdowne collection.
How to make a clay doll
The base of these figures consists of a metal framework, over which the clay is modelled. To make the small details, clay was mixed with cotton wool. The clay figures would then dry in the sun. Any cracks created by the drying process would be repaired with paper, tamarind seeds or glue. Then, to breathe life into the figures, they would be painted and decorated. The decoration could extend to making clothes, adding hair and tiny little details.
You can see these in the collection of dolls at Bowood: from fabric costumes to paper books, to tiny gold bracelets on the wrist of one figure, the detail is incredible. The longer you spend looking at the figures, you notice increasingly tiny details, and appreciate the skill it has taken to make them.
