Indian Renaissance: British Romantic Art and the Prospect of India is the first comprehensive examination of British artists whose first-hand impressions and prospects of the Indian subcontinent became a stimulus for the Romantic Movement in England; it is also a survey of the transformation of the images brought home by these artists into the cultural imperatives of imperial, Victorian Britain. The book proposes a second - Indian - Renaissance for British (and European) art and culture and an undeniable connection between English Romanticism and British Imperialism. Artists treated in-depth include James Forbes, James Wales, Tilly Kettle, William Hodges, Johann Zoffany, Francesco Renaldi, Thomas and William Daniell, Robert Home, Thomas Hickey, Arthur William Devis, R. H. Colebrooke, Alexander Allan, Henry Salt, James Baillie Fraser, Charles Gold, James Moffat, Charles D'Oyly, William Blake, J. M. W. Turner and George Chinnery.

About the Author

Hermione de Almeida is Walter Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Tulsa, USA. She is author of Romantic Medicine and John Keats (1991), Byron and Joyce Through Homer (1981), and other works on Romanticism.

George H. Gilpin is Professor of English at the University of Tulsa and Scholar-in-Residence in Special Collections at McFarlin Library. He is the author of The Art of Contemporary English Culture (1991) and other works on Romanticism and British art.

Reviews

Prize: winner of the The Association of Historians of British Art prize for 2007 in the post-1800 category

'.... a welcome addition to the field of British Indian studies. The authors have ... made a significant contribution to the study of the role of art and the development of British imperial identity and ideology ... this book is original, fresh, engaging ... The text is a must for anyone interested in British Romanticism. It stands apart from previous publications on British artists working on the subcontinent in that it avoids the cliche biographical or descriptive approach. Instead de Almedia and Gilpin focus on analysis shedding light on significant questions such as how the desire to dominate another culture influenced the subjects of art works.' New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies

'This important text offers an original and very welcome addition to the literature on the art and aesthetics of British India during the early period of colonization; as such it contributes significantly to the increasing debate over British art's relation to imperial history, as well as forcing a reconsideration of the changing ways in which India was perceived by the British during this period.' Geoff Quilley, National Maritime Museum, London, UK

'This ranging and detailed study seriously complicates our notions of the place of India in the Romantic imagination. Lavishly and intelligently illustrated, Indian Reniassance persuasively argues that images of India were crucial to late-18th and early-19th-century Europe, and to Romanticism itself. This is a book Romanticists will need to read and absorb visually-and to own.' J. Paul Hunter, University of Virginia

Book Information
ISBN 9781138266360
Author Hermione de Almeida
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g