Balthazar Solvyns was born in Antwerp in 1760. During the troubles under Joseph II he went to live in Austria, returned to Belgium and eventually in 1790 set sail for India. He arrived in Calcutta in 1791 but found it difficult securing patronage, so that for some years he made a living by painting decorations for theatres and through small commissions.
In 1792 he undertook a commission for Alexander Kyd, the Surveyor-General in Calcutta who had been on an expedition to Penang and the Andaman Islands and was writing a report for the East India Company in London. Solvyns provided the illustrations by working up the sketches that had been made on the spot. He also drew two Andaman Islanders who had been brought back to Calcutta by the surveyors. All of this material is in the India Office Library.
While in Calcutta Solvyns noticed the keen interest that the British showed in Indian costumes and ways of life and decided to produce a comprehensive record of the castes, occupations, ascetics, transport, musical instruments and festivals. With the encouragement of the Orientalist, Sir William Jones, he announced his scheme in 1794 and in 1799 he published in Calcutta A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs, and Dress of the Hindoos.
Solvyns work was not a success, perhaps due to the inferior quality of the etchings which Solvyns did himself. He did, however recruit Indian painters to help him to colour the prints.
In 1804 he left Calcutta and went to France. In Paris, he used his wife's money to produce a French Folio edition of the book, which consisted of 248 plates and was produced in 48 parts between 1804 and 1812. Sadly, this too was a failure.
Finally in 1815 he returned to Belgium and was given work as a Captain at the Port of Antwerp where he remained until his death in 1824.
Although Solvyns' works were not a sucess they had unexpected repercussions on Indian painters in Eastern India. During the last quarter of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, Indian painters became familiar with the subjects that interested their new British patrons. The Indian artist in Calcutta and Bengal looked to Solvyns' works for stylistic guidance during this period. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century pictures produced in Calcutta and Murshidabad are therefore often strongly reminiscent of Solvyns' work
Balthazar Solvyns (1760-1824)
Details
Balthazar Solvyns (1760-1824)
A J'huppaun (Snake Festival); and An Indian Funeral, Calcutta, Bengal
pencil and watercolour on the artist's original mount
12¾ x 18in. (325 x 460mm.); 12¾ x 17 7/8in. (324 x 454mm.) (2)
A J'huppaun (Snake Festival); and An Indian Funeral, Calcutta, Bengal
pencil and watercolour on the artist's original mount
12¾ x 18in. (325 x 460mm.); 12¾ x 17 7/8in. (324 x 454mm.) (2)
Literature
P. Pal and V. Dehejia, From Merchants to Emperors, London, 1986, p.134, pl.130
Engraved
F.B.Solvyns, coloured etchings, 1799, A Collection of Two-Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos, Vol.XII, pl.19 and vol.XIII, pl.13