Dr. Morris and party, Jhansi (recto)
1884
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Raja Deen Dayal
Raja Lala Deen Dayal, famously known as Raja Deen Dayal) was an Indian photographer.
See the richer artist page1884
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dr. Morris and party, Jhansi (recto) is a 1884 by Raja Deen Dayal, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a group of British officials and Indian servants standing stiffly in front of a tent in Jhansi. This is one of the earliest photographs taken by an Indian photographer for British clients. Most colonial pictures were made by Europeans; here, Raja Deen Dayal turns the lens back on the people who ran the empire. The men look posed, but the light and shadows feel real. To see more of India through Indian eyes, look up Raja Deen Dayal (Indian, 1844–1905).
These photographs are part of an album, now disassembled, of around 105 photographs taken in India between 1885 and summer 1887 that provide glimpses into the lives of the British colonial elite and royal and upper-class Indians. The museum holds another group of 37 pictures from this album (2016.266), which was probably commissioned by a British civil servant visiting or working in India around 1888 as a personal souvenir of his experiences there.
Raja Deen Dayal is regarded now, and was considered during his lifetime, to be India’s most important 19th-century photographer.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Raja Lala Deen Dayal, famously known as Raja Deen Dayal) was an Indian photographer.
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