The West in the East

Kishore Singh / New Delhi October 14, 2009, 0:27 IST

There was at least one whole century when Western art was collected in India. But do you know how much it’s worth?.

We’re all envious of the collection of Western art — original works, lithographs, etchings — at New Delhi’s Imperial Hotel, but there’s enough and more to be found in homes in the capital, in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, in the former kingdoms, and, of course, in Kolkata. Many of them are paintings done by Western artists on their travels in India: typically, these would be commissioned by families, and were intended to show an appreciation of Western art. Mostly, their subjects were Indian — views of Mysore or Jeypore or Udeypore, for instance — but many were also painted by ladies of leisure, on their journeys through India, or their trips to the Himalayan hill stations.

On their campaigns in India, foremen and even some soldiers were required to draw, so they could send descriptions of forts, or city layouts, or battle scenes, whether done in amateur fashion or professionally. Some of these would then be turned into works of art by artists who rarely ventured beyond Calcutta or Madras or Bombay. The originals — usually flattering to the British — found their way into government offices, or to East India House in London, but etchings or lithos were often sold as sets both in India, and to the public in Great Britain seeking news and views of the brightest jewel in its crown.

While British, European and even Russian artists found fresh material and fertile ground in India, in a reverse trend royal families, merchants and traders from India started buying European works from their travels that they brought back with them by ship. Sometimes this was kitsch — idyllic scenes of pastoral landscapes — but often there were well-known artists whose worth went up back home, even as the few works that came to India remained neglected in the absence of a vibrant Western art collecting culture as much as a lack of information about those artists in the boondocks of Lucknow or Kanpur or Cooch Behar.

Just how short of information we still remain was brought home to me when a reader of this column sought to know where to turn with his inheritance of Russian/Ukranian post-Bolshevik artists who found themselves limited to painting just landscapes or still life. He sent images complete with flaking gilt-edged frames and peeling canvases with the request: could I help in having them evaluated, perhaps even sold?

Where in India do you turn when you need advise on a collection of Western art that is less than current or contemporary? While Google is an obvious tool to check for information, it isn’t easy when trying to find material on obscure artists. In any case, what then, having found that an artist lived from, say 1842 to 1930? What about evaluations, provenance, and the bit about selling (or buying)?

The bad news is that Indian galleries in almost all cases will be unable to provide any help. That’s because with few exceptions — Marigold in Delhi and soon in Mumbai, and some international participation at the annual India Art Fair — a culture of collecting Western or international art has still to permeate to India.

The good news though is that the international auction houses Sotheby’s (maithili. parekh@sothebys.com) and Christie’s (info@christies.com), both of which have a presence in Mumbai, can help with evaluations as well as sales, though it isn’t always the smoothest or easiest of processes. According to their representatives, it is best to send them an image of the painting or paintings in question, which are then forwarded to any of their experts at their international offices in Hong Kong or London or New York. These departments could range from schools (Impressionist, Modern, Islamic, Nineteenth Century European and so on) to regions (Russian, British, Japanese…), as also collectibles (carpets,watches, furniture, sculpture). Bonhams ( www.bonhams.com ) does not have an India office but offers similar services. And of course, Christie’s is also represented by Vadehra Art Gallery ( www.vadehraart.com ) in New Delhi, which is happy to accept consignments for similar services.

Nor is it all that unusual for Pablo Picasso or Francis Bacon prints to be offered for sale from India, Renoir a particular favourite among collectors of a certain age, and any number of Daniells to be found. According to one expert, Sotheby’s or Christie’s are likely to give a low and a high estimate, with examples, and usually the mid-estimate will be the likely value of the work in question. Usually value increases when the provenance documents are available, if a painting was originally bought from a prominent gallery, or from an auction, or from a person of some prominence — calculate 10 per cent more value for each of these clauses ticked!

Naturally, if a work is over a hundred years old, regardless of its place of origin, in India it is deemed an antique and cannot be exported.

If you’d like to do your own sleuthing, the best place to go to is www.artprice.com, the world’s largest data bank on artists and their prices. You can submit a photograph of the artist’s work for them to match with their data, and hope to hear back in a couple of days with estimated value, likely period when it was painted and so on. You can also spend time on the site doing your own search/match, though only limited services are free and you might need to subscribe if you want to do thorough research. And who knows, that uninspiring landscape in your grandmother’s dressing room might turn out to be a rare treasure!