Son of the Nawaub of Banda

Son of the Nawaub of Banda, from Portraits of the Princes and Peoples of India, 1844 By Emily Eden (British, 1797–1869) Hand-painted chromolithograph on paper Gift of the Kapany Collection, 1998.63.1 Emily Eden was an avid artist, taking every available opportunity to go on excursions and sketch the local people, landscapes, and architecture. Indian rulers and their family members, whom she encountered in her official capacity as the governor-general’s head of household, often asked her for portraits. A selection of these were later published as a book, whose cover page is shown here.

For Eden, picture-making was a way of preserving the memory of people and places. In a letter to her sister, she emotionally described her opinions about art:

 “I love hills, but I have discovered by deep reflection that that we are such artificial animals, that the recollections of art are much more pleasing and stronger in my mind than those of nature. . . . Don’t you love a fine picture? After all, it is only nature caught and fixed. Another thing is, that all my associations with pictures and statues are those of pleasant society, and friends, and good houses, and youth, and happiness, though I should love them for their own sakes too.”

—Excerpt from Emily Eden, Up the Country: Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India, 1866 I52, I53