Sawai Madhavrao, the 11th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire, with Nana Fadnavis and attendants, in Poona, 1792.
PIC/ WIKICOMMONS ART is in the details. And if Punebased historian Dr Uday S Kulkarni is to be believed, the only painter to have managed to capture the minutiae of everyday life, while memorialising the richness of the Marathas in the late 1700s was Scottish artist James Wales. Until then, there were the stray profile portraits of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Peshwa Baji Rao that would eventually make their way to the museums of the world. But, itu2019s Walesu2019s u201c glorious technicolouru201d painting of Sawai Madhavrao ( also known as Madhav Rao II), the 11th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire in and characters that made his subject life- likeu201d. u201c It almost looked better than a photograph,u201d says 63- year- old Kulkarni.
Itu2019s this uniqueness of Walesu2019s artistry, which first piqued Kulkarniu2019s curiosity. His previous works, Solstice at Panipat and The Era of Baji Rao, engaged with 18th century Indian history. His new historical biography, James Wales: Artist and Antiquarian in the time of Peshwa Sawai Madhavrao ( Mula Mutha Publishers), is no different.
The book, several years in the making, Jane Borges PIC/ NITHIN
making, is a first- of- its- kind attempt to explore the repertoire of Wales, who travelled from London to Bombay in 1791, in search of a job as an artist. A year later, he met Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet, a diplomat who served in the East India Company and a resident in the court of the Peshwa. It was through him that heu2019d arrive at the royal court. His paintings of Madhav Rao II, his minister Nana Fadnavis and Nur al- din Hussein Khan, the residency vakil, were undoubtedly stellar.
But to see Wales through the lens of art, would be limiting his contribution to Maratha history.
He was also a commentator and critique of culture, and an artist who documented almost u201c accurately and truthfullyu201d what he saw and experienced around him.
Kulkarni, who is also a practising surgeon with over 30 years of experience, managed to get access to Wales works, after he reached out to the Yale Centre For British Art in Connecticut, US, in 2013. The digitised treasure trove, included over six folios, comprising original bound journals, letters, sketches by his assistants Gangaram and Robert Mabonu2014 all from his time spent in India. u201c A year later, I happened to show an archaeological professor of Deccan College in Pune some of Walesu2019s drawings of the caves [ Ellora, Elephanta and Karla] in the region. He told me that these were the oldest available archaeological drawings available on any Indian cave. Until then, it was assumed that the earliest drawings were made by Colonel Colin Mackenzie, who drew pictures of NITHIN MOHAN
