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Tom Raw visits Taylor & Co.'s emporium in Calcutta

Charles D'Oyly

1828

paint

From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum

Romanticism Early 19th Century Interior

Dominant colour

Tom Raw visits Taylor & Co.'s emporium in Calcutta is a 1828 paint by Charles D'Oyly, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Who painted this?: Charles D'Oyly
When & what style?: 1828 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Victoria and Albert Museum

About this work

You see a busy shop in Calcutta, packed with bolts of cloth, jars of spices, and British clerks in tall hats. D’Oyly didn’t just paint this—he lived it. He worked for the East India Company, ran an art club, and even wrote a comic poem about a clueless new recruit named Tom Raw. The painting is one of the illustrations for that poem, so the scene feels like a snapshot from a story, not just a place. If you like this mix of daily life and humor, look up the Victoria and Albert Museum for more colonial-era sketches.

The story of this work

Overview

The painting depicts a long, colonnaded hall in a European goods emporium in Calcutta, where British residents in fashionable attire are seen strolling. Indian attendants observe the scene from a distance as stacks of porcelain and crockery occupy a table to the right. Elaborate chandeliers hang from the ceiling, illuminating the space.

Read the full account in the museum source.

About the artist

Artist

Charles D'Oyly

Charles D’Oyly painted British India in the early 1800s. He made watercolors and prints that showed life in Calcutta—shopkeepers, street scenes, and British officers at work. One piece shows Tom Raw, a fictional British…

See the richer artist page