The Orientalist’s Benares investigates intersections of life and death

DAG celebrates the new year with an epic unveiling of The Orientalists’ Benares, at Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai ,a special exhibition, for the  Mumbai Gallery Weekend 2024, that features views of the ancient city of Benares as depicted by foreign artists in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Opening on 11 January 2024 at DAG 1, the exhibition presents sterling  works in DAG’s collection showcasing the diverse artistic responses to the city by such foreign artists across the span of nearly two centuries.

Elegant and elegiac, artists represented are  Thomas Daniell, James Prinsep, Marius Bauer, Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpés, Ludwig Hans Fischer and others. Amidst landscapes transcending time and history, Benares  appears otherworldly as if winged in the  flight of an earthling between sunrises and sunsets. Suspended in a suffused rendition of resonance, resilience and redemption here are views that shine like translucent skin-like surfaces as seemingly fragile forms beckon a distilled and evolved living system of life and death on the Ghats.

Daniel’s Panchganga and Durga Ghats, Benares 1800

The ancient city of Benares as depicted by foreign artists who visited India in the 19th and early 20th centuries, resonates with an ephemeral beauty that is found in the dynamic architectural symbolism that in the shades of the sunlight seduce with their beauty.Thomas Daniel brings back history on the wings of time.They recreate most ghats  joined by a maze of ancient lanes and bylanes together  and give us an impression of a city which is frozen in time replete with boats.

History says during Daniel’s first tour, which took them along the Ganges, they sailed past Benares and spent some time making numerous sketches and drawings from the river which were later used as the basis for fully worked up oils. This painting of Panchaganga is one of a small group of oils of the ghats by Thomas and his nephew William. On 4 December 1788, William recorded in his diary ‘The general view of Benares from the Pinnacle was so very grand that I stayed on Board the whole day to draw it, fearing if we let slip the present opportunity that we might never see it in a better point of View’.The dotted humans in white are a testament to the devotees and widows of Benares who dwelt and visited for prayer and penance.

Marius Bauer’s Festival on the Ganges, Benares 

Marius Bauer’s Festival on the Ganges is a panoramic  celebration of vignettes and vistas, he  was not only well-known for his pictures, watercolours and drawings, but also for his many etchings, which are clearly influenced by Rembrandt’s oeuvre. Most of Bauer’s work shows his love for the Orient, where he travelled extensively.

Bauer’s second vignette is vertical and filled with impasto strokes.This oil on canvas of Benares plays like an act from a theatrical production.Lithe and lean strokes create their own corollaries of conversations that run through time’s tryst with destiny.

In 1898 he travelled to India and his etchings of scenes from these journeys were widely appreciated, and he was awarded a ‘Grand Prix’ at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900.Marius Bauer travelled to the subcontinent to capture its exotic sceneries and colourful life. His readings of oriental literature sparked his interest in the region and with support from the Amsterdam-based art dealer, E.J. van Wisselingh, he travelled to Istanbul at the age of 21.

Eric Kips Benares at the Golden Gate

Eric Kips’ oil on cardboard of Benares at the Golden Gate is a cynosure of vertical angularity bathed in splendour.

Benares (now known as Varanasi) continues to be the religious capital of India and one of the most important places of pilgrimage and of ritual bathing.The choice of the view and the decision to paint the boats and the hustle and bustle all bring back not the beauty of this eternal city but also reflect Kips love for capturing the scene in all its glory.

Ludwig Hans Fischer’s  A Priest and Two Ascetics, 1889

 Ludwig Hans Fischer’s study of a priest and two ascetics on the Ghats at Benares are a joy to behold.The sumptuous medley of framing the ritual vessels along with the two bronze bodied priests creates a choreography of characters.The tenor and tone of the colours all in brown hues has its own sense of cohesive connotations. Fischer and other artists who followed were more interested in people and society, and scenes of everyday life, than in the temple town’s monuments.

CJ Robinson’s Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi 

CJ Robinson’s watercolour on watercolour board, c. 1910 reflects the famous ghat bathed in smoky hues and sandstone stirrings.Here we see the love artists had for this holy city, with its bustling riverside ghats and ritualistic fervour that became a part of most travelling artists’ itineraries, serving as an evocative muse. Robinson came to Benares in search of picturesque views of architecture and landscapes and captured the monuments in tensile tradition.

Taking a dip in the Ganges too was a surreal scene to be captured.  While  shadows appear to levitate the light off the walls, the rich earth tints in the sandstones, impart an organic quality to the work.Referring to  nature has an understanding of the woven tenor of textuality of the rituals of the human spirit,  contained in the all-encompassing matrix of  the karmic echoes of Benares.

For Orientalists like the Dutch Marius Bauer, the Belgian-born Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès or the German Erich Kips, Benares provided the perfect backdrop to their paintings, which were laced with surreal pathos as well as  romantic representations of the city.

Images credit: DAG