Add Or 2537

Portrait of Ernest Binfield Havell (1861-1934), half-length, seated on an ivory chair, a red, rolled blind above.

By Ishwari Prasad, a Patna artist working in Calcutta, c.1904.

Water-colour; 7.75 by 5.25 ins.

Presented by the subject’s daughter, Lady Sonia Wilson, together with Photo 273, 18 October 1968.

Note: After studying at the Royal College of Art and in Paris and Italy, Havell went to India in 1884 in the Indian Educational Service. Until 1892 he was Superintendent of the Madras School of Arts. From 1892 until 1896, he acted as Reporter to the Government on Arts and Industries, and conducted an official investigation into indigenous handicrafts. From 1896 until 1906, he was Principal of the Calcutta School of Art and Keeper of the Government Art Gallery, Calcutta. He was a Fellow of Calcutta University and active in University reform. He also drew up the report of a committee appointed by the Govemment in 1901 to revise the system of vernacular education. In 1906 he retired to England, but from 1916 until 1923 served in the British Legation, Copenhagen. While in India Havell played an important part in the nationalist revival. He helped revive hand-loom weaving, reorganised art education on Indian lines and stimulated the development of the Neo-Bengal School of painting. He wrote several books, re-evaluating Indian painting and sculpture.

The present portrait was painted by Ishwari Prasad (1870-1950), grand-son of the Patna painter, Shiva Lal. After working as the retained artist of Raja Lachman Seth of Mathura, Ishwari was appointed by Havell as a teacher at the Calcutta Art School in 1904. The appointment was probably due to Havell’s eagerness to revive traditional Indian painting. Ishwari had been trained by his grand-father who was expert in making miniature portraits from photographs. Similar paintings by Ishwari, using idioms of Rajput painting such as the rolled blind, were formerly in the collection of P.C. Manuk of Patna.

For E.B. Havell, see W.G. Archer, ‘India and modern art’ (London, 1959). For Ishwari Prasad, see Archer (1947); Archer (1955), 28, 35, 115, 116.