NCERT Solutions Class 8 History Chapter 10 - The Changing World of Visual Arts

(a) portraiture.

(b) picturesque. 

(c) Kalighat paintings. 

(d) history paintings.

These art forms that were brought in with British art are: (a) Oil painting, (c) life-size portrait painting and (d) use of perspective.

The picture that depicted the discovery of Tipu Sultan's body displays the British as being powerful and important than the Indians. The British General in this painting is depicted as though he is standing on a high pedestal, oozing tremendous confidence. In order to develop a firm foothold in Indian soil, the British Empire’s might is visible in almost all the artworks. Tipu Sultan, on the other hand, is represented half-naked and motionless, resting in a dark corner. The picture appears to be implying that people who defy British rule would suffer the same fate.

Scroll painters and potters travelled to Kalighat hoping to find new fans and buyers for their work. A new movement emerged among the Kalighat artists after the 1840s. Kalighat painters responded to the world around them by creating paintings on social and political topics, living in a culture whose values, tastes, social conventions, and customs were rapidly changing.

Raja Ravi Varma was one of the first artists to attempt to create a modern and national style. He painted them from Indian mythology using the Western art of oil painting and realistic life study. He recreated scene after scene from the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata on canvas. His paintings are recognized as national because of their depiction of Indian consciousness. This may have been one of the reasons why his paintings were so popular among Indian princes and art collectors, as well as the general public.

The sentiments of imperial conquerors were represented in the British history paintings in India. Various episodes of British imperial history were dramatized and recreated in the British history paintings. The British might, conquests, and supremacy were honored in these artworks. The paintings of imperial history aimed to build a popular remembrance of imperial victories. Victories had to be recalled and imprinted on people's minds, both in India and Britain. Only then British would be able to leave a lasting imprint on people's minds.

Ravi Varma's paintings were rejected because they appeared to be mimicking western concepts. Some artists thought his work was inappropriate for expressing the country's ancient myths and legends. They believed that a true Indian painting style had to draw influence from non-Western art traditions and attempt to portray the East's spiritual essence. These artists abandoned the realistic technique of oil painting and looked to medieval Indian traditions of miniature painting and the ancient art of mural painting in the Ajanta caves for inspiration. Rabindranath Tagore was one of the earliest artists to advocate for the development of a national art form.

By the late nineteenth century, mechanical printing presses were set up in several parts of India, allowing prints to be produced in larger quantities than possible with manual labour. As a result, these prints could be offered for a low price on the market. Thus, they are affordable to the poor. Early twentieth-century popular prints propagated nationalist messages far and wide. People would have been inspired to fight British rule if they had seen such popular prints. As a result, the prints could serve as a platform for the transmission of nationalist ideas across the regions of India.