From Portrait to Selfie
The evolution of the portrait is a narrative of the commoners reclaiming the elitist self-gaze
exhibitions at Delhi Art Gallery, which is now exhibiting ‘Indian Portraits: The Face of a People’, a collection that dates back 250 years. Chronologically layered in the gallery’s Kala Ghoda space in Mumbai, 150 paintings from a collection of 400 includes anonymous artists alongside masters such as J. Barton, L.N. Taskar, K.K. Hebber, Jogen Chowdhury, F.N. Souza, Gogi Saroj Pal and Frank Brooks. This evolution of the portrait runs as an undercurrent in the timeline of the exhibit, which travels from portraits as the pastime of Mughal emperors to aristocratic women to women of the street. It’s a move towards reclaiming the elitist self-gaze. The selfie, in effect, completes a process of democratisation that, William Dalrymple, the author of Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi, points out, began with the undemocratic ways of the East India Company.
The first Indian portraits were of Harisena of the Vakataka empire in the 3rd century at Ajanta and of Raja Raja Chola in Chidambaram but it was the Mughals who took portraiture to a whole new level. There are 20 to 30 known portraits each of Babur and Humayun, hundreds of Akbar and Jehangir and over 200 of Shah Jehan. And not just emperors, famed Mughal court artists such as Govardhan, Abu al-Hasan and Ustad Mansoor left humorous self-portraits in the margins of their works. They painted themselves in the audience, at the feet of the king, by the posterior of a horse or sweeping the floor. Indeed, theirs were the first selfies by Indians. Then came the Portuguese and the Jesuits, and their realism and humanism began to influence Indian portraits.
The East India Company brought with it royal portraits such as that of King Edward V painted by J. Barton in mid-fifteenth century which is on display at the Kala Ghoda exhibition. These influenced local artists, who infused portraits of Indian aristocrats with this regality. Their portraits commissioned by Englishmen also gained depth and chiaroscuro. “Perspective came in mid-eighteenth century when landscape artists from the West made their way to India, looking to make prints for folio books on impressions of the Orient,” Singh points out. It was around this time that portraiture became a status symbol, and every nobleman worth his name wanted one. Landscape and portrait artists found work in abundance at the new, large aristocratic mansions of increasingly wealthy Indians and local artists queued up to apprentice with them. Nawabs, particularly of Arcot and Awadh, were indulgent patrons and commissioned large theatrical works. Under this patronage, artists such as Benjamin Hudson and Frank Brooks flourished.
The Raja Ravi Varma school of painting was also a native response to the Company-era portraits, the return of the colonisers’ gaze as it were. Deepanjana Pal, author of The Painter, points out that in 1868, when Dutch artist Theodore Jensen was presented to Ayilyam Thirunal, the Raja of Travancore, Ravi Varma watched him paint and learned the secrets of the oils. It was not long before local artists gained commissions
doing oils for local businessmen, minor royals, priests and landlords, borrowing regality from English portraits and from paintings of gods and goddesses. Taking off from the Raja Ravi Varma school, anonymous artists left behind portraits of lesser known wealthy patrons. Since not many artists could persuade aristocratic women in purdah to pose, Hemendranath Majumdar and L.N. Taskar, towards the latter half of the 19th century, turned to women of the street. The difference in the artists’ gaze in portraits of aristocratic women and that of women of the street in the same era are marked, notes Singh.
Oriental influences of Chinese artists such as Sin Qua are evident in portraits of Parsi traders painted in China and Hong Kong. The influences of the East and the West alike allowed artists at the turn of the 20th century to progress from physical studies to looking further into the face. Rabindranath Tagore’s paintings of his sister-in-law Kadambari, also on display, are morbid studies of pining beyond sensuality. While in the West, portraiture peaked in the hands of Picasso, in India, it was artists such as M.F. Husain and F.N. Souza who took portraits to the realm of psychological imagery. The two works on display chart a timeline from Souza’s early physical portrait of himself to the latter twisted self-image. S.H. Raza’s portraits, Akbar Padamsee’s nudes, Jogen Chodhury’s self-portraits, Gogi Saroj Pal’s Sonagachi women are the last great self-images before artists moved into portraits as figuratives.
Today, artists such as A.S. Yusuf Arakkal confess to exploring great portrait galleries such as those at Uffizi in Spain for inspiration. Portraits are tucked away in the artist’s repertoire as riyaaz (practice) rather than as showpieces. Portraiture has, since the mid-80s, became the domain of the photographer more than the artist. If it is of any interest, it is so to the collector, and that doesn’t necessarily hold true for contemporary times. “I don’t know who would want to buy a portrait of the Ambani family 40 years from now, if not as a historical token,” says Singh.
Aakash Ambani taking a selfie and tweeting it with the caption, ‘First day at RIL; wish me luck!” going viral and breaking Twitter records? Now that’s a different story. A story that’s evolving by the click.
Selfie was already the word of the year 2013 before Degeneres’ snap accorded it cult status. In the brief period since, it has evolved into multiple versions, including desi ones. Bumfie is the self-clicked picture of one’s bum popularised by Kalki Koechlin, elfie is the Gul Panag-inspired selfie snapped in an elevator and sulfie is a selfportrait alongside an SUV a la Anand Mahindra. Welfie is the workout selfie, helfie is the hair selfie and belfie is the international version of the bumfie. The most popular of the lot, however, is drelfie, the drunken selfie. The bug is catching, and not just with movie stars. The latest cult snapshot in the selfie hall of fame is of US President Barack Obama with baseball star David Ortiz. The selfie revolution has just begun.