Full Description
India in Art in Ireland is the first book to address how the relationship between these two ends of the British Empire played out in the visual arts. It demonstrates that Irish ambivalence about British imperialism in India complicates the assumption that colonialism precluded identifying with an exotic other. Examining a wide range of media, including manuscript illuminations, paintings, prints, architecture, stained glass, and photography, its authors demonstrate the complex nature of empire in India, compare these empires to British imperialism in Ireland, and explore the contemporary relationship between what are now two independent countries through a consideration of works of art in Irish collections, supplemented by a consideration of Irish architecture and of contemporary Irish visual culture. The collection features essays on Rajput and Mughal miniatures, on a portrait of an Indian woman by the Irish painter Thomas Hickey, on the gate lodge to the Dromana estate in County Waterford, and a consideration of the intellectual context of Harry Clarke's Eve of St. Agnes window. This book should appeal not only to those seeking to learn more about some of Ireland's most cherished works of art, but to all those curious about the complex interplay between empire, anti-colonialism, and the visual arts.
Contents
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Forward
Barry Finnbarr Flood
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Kathleen James-Chakraborty
Chapter 1: From Personal Collections to Cultural Portal: India, Ireland, and the Chester Beatty Library
Darielle Mason
Chapter 2: Loss and the Families of Empire: Thoughts on an Irish artist's Portrait of a bibi
Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby
Chapter 3: The Dromana Gate: An Indian Fantasy in Ireland
Kathleen James-Chakraborty
Chapter 4: Style/Theosophies: Character and Descent in the Celtic Revival
Arindam Dutta
Afterward
Kathleen James-Chakraborty
Bibliography
