The EIC's Forgotten Artist: Tilly Kettle and Company Painting

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the intersection of art and empire through the life of Tilly Kettle, the first British portraitist to work in India. Kettle arrived in Madras in 1769, at a time when the East India Company was consolidating power after the Battle of Plassey. He painted Mughal nobles, Company officials, and nawabs, creating a visual record of a shifting world. The episode delves into how Kettle's work documented figures like Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh and the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, and how his paintings reveal the cultural hybridity of the period — Indian patrons adopting European oil portraiture, and British sitters incorporating Mughal styles. It also touches on the fragile economics of being an artist in India, the fate of Kettle's works, and what his career tells us about the Company's cultural footprint. A natural bridge leads into a brief listener-support segment, then the conversation returns to the legacy of Company painting and the later decline of this early artistic exchange. #TillyKettle #CompanyPainting #EastIndiaCompany #Shuja-ud-Daula #ShahAlamII #Awadh #Madras #Lucknow #Portraiture #MughalEmpire #BritishRaj #18thCenturyArt #OilPainting #India #Colonialism #CulturalHybridity #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo