NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.- The Yale Center for British Art presents today “Company Culture: British Artists in the East India Company, 1770–1830,” on view through January 11, 2004. Drawn Entirely from Yale Center for British Art’s Permanent Collection, Company Culture Adds New Dimension to Groundbreaking Traces of India Exhibition The Yale Center for British Art presents an exhibition that examines the role played by artists in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries in documenting the East India Company’s extraordinary imperial initiative and formulating the image of the British presence in India.

Company Culture: British Artists in the East India Company, 1770–1830, on view October 16, 2003–January 11, 2004, is drawn entirely from the Center’s permanent collection to complement the exhibition Traces of India: Photography, Architecture, and the Politics of Representation (also on view October 16, 2003–January 11, 2004). Thomas Daniell, Jami Masjid, Delhi (detail), 1811, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection Writing from late-eighteenth-century London, Lord Chatham marveled that “the riches of Asia have been poured in upon us.” Tea, spices, fabrics, and other luxury goods from the Indian subcontinent transformed everyday life in Britain. These were the products of an aggressive and dynamic colonial endeavor spearheaded by “the Grandest Society of Merchants in the Universe”—the East India Company. Founded in 1600, this powerful collective of London-based merchants controlled every aspect of British involvement in India until 1813.

Although Parliament ended their commercial monopoly on all trade east of the southern tip of Africa in that year, they continued as the governing bureaucratic and military presence on the subcontinent until 1857. Thomas Daniell, Main Entrance of the Jami Mosque, Jaunpur, c. 1802, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection Among the “riches of Asia” exported to Europe were paintings, drawings, and prints produced by the many British artists, draftsmen, surveyors, engineers, and amateurs who traveled to the Indian subcontinent in search of patronage and aesthetic inspiration. Using selected works from the Center’s rich collection of paintings, works on paper, and rare books, the exhibition explores shared themes with Traces of India, such as strategies of representation, imperialism, and the formulation of national identity for British India. Company Culture examines the various roles played by artists and their patrons within the orbit of the East India Company.

A selection of portraits documents key figures in the Company’s commercial monopoly and battle for legitimacy of rule, such as Robert Clive, known simply as “Clive of India” and his one-time nemesis, the fiercely Thomas and Wiliam Daniell, Fakir’s Rock, c. 1790, water-color over graphite on paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection Company Culture: British Artists in the East India Company, 1770–1830 page 2 Yale Center for British Art independent Nawab of Awadh and patron of the British artist Tilly Kettle. A section focuses on the meteoric rise and momentous fall of the charismatic Warren Hastings. The exhibition investigates the importance of the Indian landscape for British landscape artists such as Thomas Daniell and his nephew, William Daniell, and William Hodges. These artists traveled extensively in India, documenting its natural wonders, historical sites, and contemporary life in a distinctively European aesthetic idiom. They had patrons among the Company elite, and the military often enabled their travels.

The Center has particularly rich holdings of work by the Daniells, who often worked collaboratively. An extensive selection of their oil paintings, watercolors, working drawings, and prints are exhibited together, providing a unique opportunity to examine their complex and meticulous working methods. The final section of the exhibition explores the representation of “Company Towns:” Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. Thomas Daniell, The Rope Bridge at Serinagus, (detail) c. 1800, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection Company Culture is curated by Morna O’Neill, doctoral candidate in the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.