British Identity in Indian Art: Johann Zoffany

Being a Southasian in the art field, I have felt that art history has been predominantly viewed through the eyes of westerns. The rubric at which we analyze art has been derived from Eurocentric constructs. From my sixth grade art teacher only ever teaching us how to draw European facial features to my tenth grade art teacher calling Indian art “humourous,” I have been taught to favor the art most distant from me. I want to both investigate this phenomenon and help change it.

I hope to analyze the effect of western expectations on eastern art. Maybe I will stumble upon a Johann Zoffany piece, one of the artists whose work sparked this perspective in me. The German painter’s contrasting portrayals of British life in India showcases the truths of the newfound domestic sphere for native Indians. In paintings commissioned by William Palmer, there’s a close knit bond between his white identity and those of the Indians surrounding him. Palmer is portrayed to have assimilated into the culture, the only remnants of his past being his redcoat that he wears. In contrast, Zoffany was also commissioned by William Blair, a British military colonel. In these works, Colonel Blair and his white family are strategically painted to highlight the difference between them and their Indian child servant. It shows hierarchy of race and superiority of white infiltration on Indian land. Upon walking the halls of museums, I hope to ignite this conversation with my peers. I hope to not only evaluate British identity within an Indian setting, but also, more generally, how today we express clear bias towards European standards in art.