A HISTORY LESSON LIKE NONE OTHER.

An exhibition on India by Western artists throws up some gems. And historical factoids.

INDIAN LIFE and Landscape by Western Artists , an exhibition of paintings, drawings and lithographs from the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum ( popularly referred to as the V& A), London is a sort of an anomaly for the National Gallery of Modern Art ( NGMA), where it is currently on display.

The NGMA's repertoire, after all, finds its genus only in the post 1850s era. So not only is it the first time that the museum has a complete exhibition from the collection of V& A -- small- scale collaborations have happened off and on over the past years -- it is also the first time the NGMA hosts an exhibition of artwork that dates back to the 1700s.

According to Prof. Rajeev Lochan, director, NGMA, the exhibition was first conceptualised by the V& A over two years ago in collaboration with the Chhatrapati Shivaji Museum in Mumbai, where it was first displayed. When Jawahar Sircar, secretary, ministry of culture, government of India saw the exhibition there, he immediately took it up with Mark Jones, director, V& A, and the rest, as they say, is the future. " Because this is an exhibition of originals, we'd like to showcase them across the country," says Lochan. The exhibition travels next to the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, followed by the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad. There is some talk of taking the exhibition to the NGMA, Bangalore as well. But till December 6, Delhiites can feast their eyes on it.

The exhibition has been divided across four categories: It begins with ' A Picturesque Tour of India', and graduates to ' Amateur Artists', and ' Realism and the Indian Student', segueing somewhere in between to ' Romanticism in India'. Beginning at the beginning, the mid- 18th century saw an influx of professional European artists into the country, who toured India for inspiration. The Picturesque, was also a major literary and aesthetic movement in England typified by a few recurring tropes -- elements of roughness and irregularity, old ruined buildings and vast scenery.

Some of the notable artists of the period include Thomas and William Daniell, the uncle- nephew duo, who created a visual memoir of some spectacular structures that have now turned to dust. Read about them at the exhibition that includes some of their most notable works such as Ruins of the Palace at Madurai and the Fortress of Gingee . Another interesting figure is Francois Balthazar Solvyns, considered the first ethnographic surveyor of Bengal. In his jottings for his watercolours Bibaha and Long Palanquin , he notes that he had to secretly watch a child marriage in order to recreate it on canvas.

The next section may be titled ' Amateur Artists', but there is really nothing amateur about their work. Most of the artists, according to the exhaustive notes that accompany the paintings, were servants of the East India Company or worked as civilians in the army.

The most amusing of the lot happens to be Charles O'Doyly, who wrote Tom Raw, The Griffin ( 1828), a long, satirical poem and illustrated it. Some of the illustrations, such as Tom Raw Attending a Nautch Party are reproduced here. The watercolour caricatures are a far cry from his oil on canvas Lalita Ghat on the Ganges at Benaras ( 1840), and it is hard to believe the same man established the Patna and Gyah Society or the Behar School of Athens ' for the promotion of the arts and sciences and for the circulation of fun and merriment of all descriptions.' If you happen to visit the exhibition, don't forget to take a look at the work of John Sell Cotman and Samuel Howitt, both of whom never visited the country. But that did not stop them from creating fantastic paintings of the Palace at Pirawa, Malwa and a leopard attacking an antelope ( respectively) from the sketches of other artists.

Scottish artist and explorer, James Baillie Fraser, the forbear of artist Olivia Fraser, who is the wife of wellloved author William Dalrymple, is also in the list. Fraser's brother William was the East India Company's Resident at the Mughal Court in Delhi and had almost turned into a Mughal himself, which can be explained by his harem of 40 wives.

THE ROMANTIC movement in the arts and literature has largely remained a western construct, even though its guiding philosophy originates in ' the Orient'. Yet, it is only when you visit the exhibition, that you see visual evidence of it. William Carpenter, the eldest son of portrait painter Margaret Sarah Carpenter is the most prolific in the list and his paintings -- of the hard- to- capture Fatehpur Sikri and the Golden Temple in Amritsar, among others -- are testimony to his extensive travels across the country.

The last section, ' Realism and the Indian Student' is, quite understandably, the closest to photographic realism.

The section includes the work of John Lockwood Kipling, father of litterateur Rudyard Kipling, and John Griffiths. Griffiths' most memorable painting, A Woman Holding a Fish on Her Head , is displayed and is still, more than a hundred years later, a visual metaphor for Mumbai.

This isn't merely an exhibition. It is a really pretty history lesson.

Indian Life and Landscape by Western Artists , is on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Jaipur House, till December 6. The gallery is open between 10 am and 5 pm from Tuesday to Sunday.

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