Artist of the Month: Thomas Daniell RA (1749-1840)
Thomas Daniell RA, Hindoo Temples at Bindrabund, East Indies. 1797. Oil on canvas. © Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Thomas Daniell is best known for his paintings and topographical prints of Indian landscapes, based on sketches that he and his nephew William made on their travels. Born in Kingston-upon-Thames to an innkeeper, Daniell worked as a coach painter before attending the Royal Academy Schools. Although he exhibited thirty works of various subjects at the Royal Academy from 1772 to 1784, Daniell found it difficult to establish himself as a landscape painter in Britain. Like many other Europeans he was drawn to India by stories of the wealth and fame that awaited travellers to the newly accessible East. Daniell gained permission from the East India Company in 1784 to travel to Calcutta as an engraver, with William Daniell as his assistant.
After his return from India in 1794, Daniell worked up oil paintings from sketches made there. When elected a Member of the Royal Academy in 1799, Daniell submitted a painting of the temples at Bindrabund (above) as his Diploma Work. Daniell admired Indian architecture and his enthusiasm was shared in Britain, where the ‘Hindoo’ style became popular in some decorative arts and architecture. Humphry Repton (1752-1818) used one of Daniell’s aquatints of sandstone temples as the basis for a design for an aviary for the Royal Pavilion at Brighton in 1806.
George Dance RA, Portrait of Thomas Daniell RA. 1800. Pencil on cream wove paper. © Royal Academy of Arts, London.
George Dance’s profile portrait of Thomas Daniell (left), drawn around 1800, shows the artist at the height of his success. The pencil portrait is part of a series of over two hundred drawings of the ‘Eminent Characters’ of the day.
Thomas Daniell’s biggest success came from the six volumes of aquatints that he and William produced, entitled Oriental Scenery, published from 1795 to 1815. Each volume contained twenty-four aquatints of Indian scenes which were hand-coloured to look like the watercolour original. The technique was new and complex and Daniell’s experimentations and success with it made him one of the earliest pioneers of aquatint.
Thomas Daniell RA, Ruins of the Antient City of Gour formerly on the Banks of the River Ganges. From “Oriental Scenery” May 1795. Hand-coloured aquatint. © Royal Academy of Arts, London.
The Daniells were among the first wave of British artists working in India and the views they brought back to Britain were novel and exciting. Daniell’s depiction of the Ruins of the Antient City of Gour (above) gave a glimpse of exotic India. Gour had been the capital of Bengal but was abandoned after an outbreak of plague in 1575. Daniell’s aquatint of the ruined gate in the jungle is typically picturesque, romantically showing the disorder of nature overcoming man-made structures. Thomas and William describe shooting a wild pig at Gour and the animal is depicted in the tall grass in this aquatint.
Thomas Daniell RA, Gate of the Tomb of the Emperor Akbar at Secundra, near Agra. From "Oriental Scenery", November 1795. Hand-coloured aquatint. © Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Gate of the Tomb of the Emperor Akbar at Secundra demonstrates Daniell’s great interest in Indian architecture in his careful and accurate depiction of the decorative gate. At this point in their trip the Daniells had attached themselves to a party of British officers and servants for protection and the print shows their encampment outside the gate. Whilst showing the exotic architecture and nature, the Daniells also strove to make their scenes conform to European ‘classical’ ideas of beauty so that the views were not completely alien to the audience at home. William Daniell’s journal entry for the day spent by the Tomb of Akbar expresses a desire to find classically beautiful scenes:
"Un[cle] Employed the Whole Day drawing the Gates (in the Camera) leading to the Tomb of Akbar. The Road from Agra to Secundra affords many fine Views. It is covered with Buildings & Ruins the Whole way. The Whole put one in mind of the Appian Way"
William Daniell’s Journal, 25 January 1789
William’s journal reveals that the pair made use of a camera obscura, an optical device used as an aid in drawing which reduced the time it took to sketch a scene and increased the realism of their work. Daniell was aware that William Hodges had published his Select Views of India (1785-88) and was eager to ensure that his series of prints exceeded those of Hodges in terms of accuracy and content. Whilst Hodges’ Select Views was a commercial failure, Oriental Scenery reached a much wider audience and brought Thomas and William great success.
Visit the Royal Academy Collections website and explore previous Artists of the Month
