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'The Tiger and the Thistle: Tipu Sultan and the Scots
in India' exhibition:
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 29th July - 3rd October
1999 |
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Click
on an image below to view more detail.
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Room VI: Exhibition entrance:
looking towards the Third Mysore War section, and Robert
Home's painting of 'Lord Cornwallis receiving Tipu Sahib's Sons
as Hostages at Seringapatam.' |
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Room VII: Display case containing
portrait miniatures and works of art, illustrating the exhibition's
joint themes of The Tiger and the Thistle. These include
a Tipu sword with tiger motif on the blade; a book from Tipu's
library, a gold box from the palace, and a portrait medallion
of Sir Thomas Munro, whose forces Tipu defeated at Pollilur
in 1780.
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Room VII: The Third Mysore
War section, dominated by the painting of 'Lord Cornwallis
Receiving Tipu Sahib's Sons as Hostages at Seringapatam,' by
Robert Home, who witnessed the event. On the adjacent wall:
contemporary landscape drawings, and watercolours of Tipu soldiers,
visible in the painting. The oil sketch for another version,
by Mather Brown, hangs to the left, above an engraving of the
palanquin presented to the elder hostage by Lord Cornwallis.
On the right: John Smart's exquisite pencil portraits of the
hostage sons.
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Room VIII: On the right: the
19c Myth and Melodrama section, including the poster
for a 'Seringapatam' melodrama on the London stage, and two
early examples of that great 19c invention, the photographic
process. On the archway: Wilkie's preliminary sketches for his
painting of 'General Sir David Baird discovering the Body of
Sultan Tippoo Saib', visible through the archway, in the Portraits
of the Mysore Wars section. In the left foreground: from
the Tipu and the French section, two terracotta busts,
by Desseine, of one of Tipu's ambassadors and his nephew, who
were received in Paris by King Louis XVI in 1788.
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Room IX: The Living Legend.
Display case in the last section of the exhibition, containing
publications and works of art which demonstrate the continuing
interest in Tipu, right up to the present day. These include
a tiger buckle, fashioned by a Scottish silversmith; the programme
for the bi-centennial symposium in Bangalore; a modern reprint
(1988), by the Asian Education Services, of Buchanan's great
survey of Tipu's kingdom, originally published in 1807, and
the Tipu story in comic-strip format, to educate younger readers.
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Room IX: Portraits of the
Mysore Wars section: looking towards the portrait of the
Maratha Peshwa, Madhu Rao, painted at Poona in 1792 by the Scotsman,
James Wales. On the left, part of the 23ft long painting, by
an Indian artist, c.1840, of 'The Battle of Pollilur.' The painting
is a copy of the surviving mural on the walls of Tipu's Darya
Daulat palace, Seringapatam.
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Room IX: Looking across the last
room, devoted to Portraits of the Mysore Wars, towards
the previous room and the Storming of Seringapatam section.
On the right: the Scots, including Zoffany's full-length portrait
of Col. MacLeod. On the left: the Indian challenge, represented
by the Mahrattas; the panoramic 'The Battle of Pollilur, '
an Indian copy of the surviving mural at Tipu's Darya Daulat
palace, Seringapatam; and Tipu himself, the Tiger of Mysore,
here represented by his 'Man Tyger Organ.'
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'The Tiger and the Thistle: Tipu Sultan and the Scots
in India' exhibition:
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 29th July - 3rd October
1999
Reception and Exhibition tour for members of the Community Resource
Centre, Newcastle, organised as part of an Outreach Programme, sponsored
by Arts & Business |
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Two visitors seated in the main
galleries, Room X. Behind them, from the National Gallery of
Scotland's superb collection, 'Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of
Gordon,' and 'The Sacrifice of Iphigenia,' both by Pompeo Batoni
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Visitors in Room VII, the first
section of the exhibition, looking at objects which illustrate
the joint themes of The Tiger and the Thistle. In the foreground,
works by Walker; Beatson, with a portrait of Tipu as frontispiece;
and Home, a view of the interior of Tipu's palace at Bangalore.
The contemporary Indian sword hilt is decorated with thistle
motifs; the Tipu sword has a tiger motif on the blade. In the
background, are watercolours of Tipu's throne (left) and contemporary
topographical views (right) .
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Two young visitors photographed
beside the model of Tippoo's Tiger. In the background is part
of the 23ft long painting of 'The Battle of Pollilur.' The original
mural at Seringapatam, was painted to celebrate Tipu's victory
over the British in 1780. |
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Families and friends travelled
from Newcastle to visit the National Gallery of Scotland. Here
a group is photographed in front of 'The Battle of Pollilur',
an Indian copy on paper, c. 1840, of the mural which Tipu had
painted on the walls of his Darya Daulat palace, Seringapatam,
to celebrate his victory over the British in 1780.
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Following tours of the exhibition,
visitors were invited to a reception in the magnificent galleries
of the National Gallery of Scotland. On the walls are (left)
two works by Thomas Gainsborough: 'The Ladies Waldegrave' and
'The Hon. Mrs Graham.' and (right) 'Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke
of Gordon,' by Pompeo Batoni. One of the largest paintings in
the collection, Benjamin West's 'Alexander III of Scotland rescued
from the Fury of a Stag,' is visible in the distance in Room
XII, with Bartolini's marble portrait of 'The Campbell Sisters'
in front of it. |
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