Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Irish Travelling Artists: Ireland, Southern Asia and the British Empire 1760-1850 Thesis How to cite: Mcdermott, Siobhan Clare (2019). Irish Travelling Artists: Ireland, Southern Asia and the British Empire 1760-1850. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2018 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000ed14 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Irish Travelling Artists: Ireland, Southern Asia and the British Empire 1760-1850 Siobhan Claire McDermott, BA, MA, Open University, MB, BAO, BCh, Trinity College Dublin. Presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art History, School of Arts and Culture, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Open University, September, 2018. Personal Statement No part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or other qualification of the Open University or any other university or institution. It is entirely the work of the author. Abstract The aim of this thesis is to show that Irish art made in the period under discussion, the late-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, should not be considered solely in terms of Ireland’s relationship with England as heretofore, but rather, within the framework of the wider British Empire. As will be demonstrated, this approach both enhances Irish art-historical scholarship and contributes to more general studies concerning art and the British Empire. During this time of accelerating imperial expansion, Ireland’s experience of empire became increasingly ambivalent: Irish people moved through the empire as traders, soldiers and settlers, yet Ireland itself remained a colonised land. Thus, the analysis of art made by Irish travelling artists brings a new perspective to the question of art’s role in the imperial project, since intra-imperial comparisons and contrasts may be made which would not otherwise be possible. The thesis focuses on the work of two Irish artists who travelled to Southern Asia. Active initially in the commercial centre of Calcutta and then in the more militarised town of Madras, Thomas Hickey worked in India during a period of transition as British interests in the subcontinent shifted from those of trade to conquest and territorial expansion; consequently, his paintings offer illuminating insights into art’s changing functions at a pivotal moment in Anglo-Indian relations. By contrast, Andrew Nicholl, travelled somewhat later to Ceylon, serving its colonial institutions as the British Empire reached the height of its power. Ceylon has rarely been discussed in the context of art and empire, the thesis, therefore, opens up a new area of scholarship informed by Nicholl’s experience. 1 Table of Contents List of Illustrations 3-10 Introduction 11-34 Section one: Ireland, Britain and Empire. 13-20 Section two: Art and the British Empire. 20-27 Section three: Ireland, Art and Empire. 27-34 1.The Making of an Irish Travelling Artist: 1750-1800 35-77 Section one: Eighteenth-Century Art Worlds in Dublin and London. 37-49 Section two: Portraiture and Imperial Aesthetics? 50-62 Section three: Irishness and Networks of Patronage. 62-76 2. Commerce, Conquest and Change: Calcutta 1784-91 78-124 Section one: Imagining India. 79-91 Section two: The Artist as Commercial ‘Actor’. 92-103 Section three: An Irish Artist’s Indian Portraits. 103-123 3. An Imperial Turn: Madras 1798-1824 125-164 Section one: Tipu Sultan, Marquis Wellesley and Imperial Propaganda. 126-142 Section two: Surveys and Control. 142-163 4. Imperial Landscapes: Ireland to Ceylon 1830-1850 165-214 Section one: Andrew Nicholl and Ireland. 169-178 Section two: A Colonial Education in Art Practice. 178-190 Section three: Nicholl as Imperial Traveller. 190-201 2 Section four: A Sketching Tour. 201-213 Conclusion 215-221 Bibliography 222-256 Illustrations are presented in the accompanying book of illustrations. 3 List of Illustrations 1.1. Thomas Hickey, Charles Lucas, 1758, chalk on paper, 46 x 36 cm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. 1.2. Thomas Hickey, Charles Lucas, c. 1770, oil on canvas, 90.3 x 78.1 cm, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Dublin. 1.3. Thomas Hickey, George Townshend, 4th Viscount Townshend, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1769, oil on canvas, 228.6 x 147.3 cm, Mansion House, Dublin. 1.4. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Hugh Smithson (later Hugh Percy), 1st Duke of Northumberland, 1766, oil on canvas, 228.6 x 147.3 cm, Mansion House, Dublin. 1.5. Anon, Mirror with Dragons, c.1750, gilded wood, dimensions unknown, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. 1.6. John Hall (after Thomas Hickey), George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, former Chief Secretary for Ireland and Ambassador to Russia and China, published 1796, line print, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. 1.7. Thomas Medland (after Thomas Hickey), The Mandarin Van-ta-gin, coloured engraving, frontispiece to John Barrow, Travels in China, 1804. 1.8. Thomas Hickey. Coastal Views of Brazil and Tenerife, 1792, watercolour on paper, dimensions unknown, Cornell University, New York. 2.1. Map showing British Territories in India in 1805. 2.2. James Gillray, The Political Banditti Assailing the Saviour of India, published 1786, hand-coloured etching, 31.3 x 42.1 cm, National Portrait Gallery, London. 2.3. Tilly Kettle, Muhamad Ali Kahn, Nawab of Arcot, c. 1770, oil on canvas, 239 x 148 cm, Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 2.4. Francis Hayman, Robert Clive and Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, 1757, c.1762, oil on canvas, 100.3 x 127 cm, National Portrait Gallery, London. 2.5. James Rennell, Map of Hindoostan, 1782, 1 map on 2 sheets, hand coloured, 81 x 80 cm, sheets 47 x 82 cm and 48 x 82 cm, Library of Congress, Washington. 2.6.Detail of figure 2.5. showing title cartouche. 4 2.7. Thomas Hickey, Edmund Burke (1729-97) in Conversation with Charles James Fox (1749-1806), c.1783-84, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 58 cm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. 2.8. Thomas Hickey, Portrait of a Goanese Girl, c.1782, oil on canvas, 31.75 x 26 cm, private collection. 2.9. Thomas Hickey, David de Pury, c.1781, oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, Hôtel de Ville, Neuchâtel 2.10. Thomas Hickey, Gerard de Visme (1726-1798), 1783, oil on canvas, 104 x 89.5 cm, National Trust, Tyntesfield. 2.11. Thomas Hickey, Charlotte Dee (1756-1813), 1781, oil on canvas, 91.44 x 76.2 cm, private collection. 2.12. Thomas Hickey, William Hickey with a bust of Edmund Burke, c.1790, oil on canvas, 84 x 61 cm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. 2.13. Thomas Hickey, Officer of the Bengal Artillery, c. 1785, oil on canvas, 81.3 x 66cm, private collection. 2.14. Thomas Hickey, Captain (later Major-General) William Kirkpatrick, c. 1786-7, oil on canvas, 241 x 150 cm, Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata. 2.15. Thomas Hickey, The Macgregor (formerly known as Murray) Family, 1785-6, oil on canvas, private collection. 2.16. Johan Zoffany, The Auriol and Dashwood Families, 1783-7, oil on canvas, 142 x 198 cm, Dashwood family. 2.17. Thomas Hickey, An Indian Lady, perhaps ‘Jemdanee’, bibi of William Hickey, 1787, oil on canvas, 102 x 127 cm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. 2.18. Thomas Hickey, Laurence Sulivan with his Ayah, c. 1785, oil on canvas, 119.4 x 151 cm, Henderson Collection. 2.19. George Chinnery, Attention, c.1801, oil on canvas, 119 x 151cm, Royal Dublin Society, Dublin. 2.20. Francesco Renaldi, Muslim Lady Reclining, Dacca, 1789, oil on canvas, 56 x 70 cm, Yale Center for British Art. 2.21. Francesco Renaldi, Muslim Lady seated with a Hookah, 1787, oil on canvas, 70 x 56 cm, private collection. 5 2.22. Thomas Hickey, Thomas Graham of Kinross, Calcutta, c.1790, oil on canvas, 79 x 63.5 cm, Yale Center for British Art. 2.23. Thomas Hickey, John Mowbray, Calcutta Merchant attended by a Banian and a Messenger, c.1790, oil on canvas, 104 x 84 cm, British Library, London. 2.24. Thomas Hickey, detail of figure 2.23. showing heaped account books. 2.25. Arthur William Devis, William Dent with his brother and an Indian Landlord, Anand Narain, 1790, oil on canvas, 151 x 185.4 cm, private collection. 2.26. Thomas Hickey, Charles Boddam attended by a Munshi and a Hookah Bearer, 1787-8, oil on canvas, 102 x 108 cm, private collection. 2.27. Unknown Indian artist, watercolour drawing after François Balthazar Solvyns, c.1800, pen and ink with watercolour on paper, 42.4 x 60cm, British Library, London. 2.28. Thomas Hickey, detail of figure 2.23. showing ‘white on white’ technique. 2.29. Thomas Hickey, Mrs Frances Johnson (‘Begum Johnson’), c.1790, oil on canvas, 77 x 63.5 cm, British Library, London. 2.30. Thomas Hickey, detail of figure 2.23. Showing profile of the banian. 2.31. William Faden (after James Rennell), A Map of Bengal, Bahar, Oude & Allahabad with part of Agra and Delhi Exhibiting the Course of the Ganges from Hurdwar to the Sea,1786, 1 map on 2 sheets, hand coloured, 70 x 104 cm, sheets 76 x 55cm, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. 3.1. Robert Home, The Reception of the Mysorean Hostage Princes by Marquis Cornwallis, 26 February 1792, c.