The EIC's Forgotten Painters: Art and Advertising in Company India

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the East India Company's surprising role as patron of art and visual propaganda. They discuss the Tilly Kettle, the first British painter to travel to India, who set up shop in Calcutta and painted Indian nawabs in European style. They examine the Company's own artists—like Thomas Daniell and his nephew William, who produced aquatints of Indian landscapes that shaped British perceptions of the subcontinent. The conversation turns to the Company's use of oil paintings in its London headquarters to project power and civility, contrasting with the reality of colonial extraction. They also touch on the tension between Indian court painting traditions, such as Mughal miniatures, and the Western oil portraits that Company officials commissioned. The episode covers how art functioned as a tool of soft power, from the Company's coat of arms on tea chests to the illustrated volumes of Indian flora and architecture. It ends with a reflection on what these visual records reveal and conceal about Company rule. #EastIndiaCompany #EICArt #TillyKettle #ThomasDaniell #CompanySchool #Calcutta #MughalPainting #BritishArt #ColonialArt #Propaganda #SoftPower #Aquatint #Portraiture #IndiaHistory #18thCentury #19thCentury #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo