Alipore Museum Visit: Exploring Solvyns' India
On June 28th, 2025, the Department of History of Loreto College, Kolkata organized an enriching academic visit to the Alipore Museum, where an evocative exhibition of coloured etchings by François Baltazard Solvyns was on display. Solvyns, a Flemish artist who arrived in Calcutta in the late 1700s, produced an encyclopaedic pictorial record of Bengal's people in his monumental four-volume series titled Les Hindous (The Hindus.) With an eye both informed and deeply observant-often tinged with a sense of melancholy grandeur-Solvyns captured the intricacies of caste, profession, rituals, and festivals across all strata of Indian society. Students actively engaged with the museum's apprentices who provided critical insights into the significance of each artwork and unpacked the artist's lens of social observation.
The exhibition also facilitated an interactive session with Ms. Ayana Bhattacharya, a representative from DAG (Delhi Art Gallery), who guided students through the conceptual depth and visual distinctions in the Paris editions of Solvyns' work. Discussions unfolded around Solvyns' unique transliteration of Bengali terms into French, sparking interpretive curiosity. Furthermore, the challenging dimensions of his work prompted students to question entrenched ideas of caste hierarchy, gender justice, and cultural representation. By portraying professions from every level of society and detailing Indian material culture with ethnographic precision, Solvyns' work became a mirror to the complex layers of 18th-century India. The visit provided students with a profound learning experience, encouraging them to critically examine colonial perspectives, appreciate art as a form of historical inquiry, and reflect on how representation shapes understanding of the past.
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