Charles D'Oyly

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Sir Charles D'Oyly

Bt
Charles D'Oyly12.jpg
Tom Roe sits for his portrait in Chinnery's studio by Charles D'Oyly, 1828
Born17 September 1781
Murshidabad, India
Died1845
Italy
NationalityBritish- Indian
Known forPainter, sketcher, administrator, author
MovementOrientalist; Cartoonist; Satirist

Sir Charles D'Oyly, 7th Baronet (1781–1845), was a British public official and painter from Dhaka. He was a member of the Bengal Civil Service based in Calcutta, Dhaka and Patna from 1797 to 1838. Althgouth he held senior positions with the East India Company’s civil service, he is best known as a talented amateur artist, poet and publisher. He was also a talented and prolific amateur artist who published many books featuring engravings and lithographs featuring Indian subject matter.

Life and career[]

Charles D'Oyly was born in Murshidabad, India on 17 September 1781 at Murshidabad, Bengal[1] into a family that had long served in India.[2] He was the son of Sir John-Hadley D'Oyly, 6th Baronet and Diana Rochfort.[3] [4]

His father, was the resident of the East India Company at the Court of Nawab Babar Ali of Murshidabad. As a boy, D'Oyly went to England with the family in 1785 and received his first formal education there. In 1798 he returned to India as Assistant to the Registrar in the Court of Appeal in Calcutta. In 1803 he was appointed as 'Keeper of the Records' in the office of the Governor General.[5]

After the death of his father in 1818, D'Oyly inherited the baronetage and received a knighthood. D'Oyly was appointed as the Collector of Dacca (now Dhaka) in 1808. In the following years, he held posts as Collector of Dhaka from 1808 to 1817; City Collector of Customs in Calcutta (1818); d the Opium Agent of Bihar and the Commercial Resident of Patna (1821-1831) and lastly the Senior Member of the Board of Customs, Salt, Opium and of the Marine (1833). Between 1832 and 1833, D'Oyly took leave at the Cape of Good Hope, returning to Calcutta to fill the post of Senior Member of Customs, before retiring in 1838.

He married firstly, his cousin, Marian Greer (m. 1805), daughter of William Greer; and secondly Elizabeth Jane Ross, daughter of Major Thomas Ross.[6]

The Governor-General, the Marquis of Hastings, was very taken with D’Oyly who served as the Governor’s aide de comp whenever he was in Calcutta. [7] After serving with the company for forty years, his failing health compelled D'Oyly to leave India in 1838. The greater part of the rest of his life was spent in Italy. D'Oyly died in Italy on 21 September 1845 without issue.[8]

Charles sketched incessantly and took an active interest in the arts generally. He found these leisure pursuits to be an agreeable way to relieve the boredom associated with colonial life. In July, 1824, he founded an amateur art society which he named 'United Patna and Gaya Society' or 'Behar School of Athens’ with the objective of “the promotion of Arts and Sciences and … the circulation of fun and merriment of all descriptions.” Bishop Heber, who visited Patna in the 1840s, described D’Oyly as the “best gentleman artist I ever met”. [9]

During his time in Dacca, he painted a wide variety of pictures, especially the Mughal ruins which he published in a folio-size book with fifteen engravings entitled Antiquties of Dacca (now Dhaka in Bangladesh) in London 1814 and in various reprints from 1823 onwards. A short historical account of Dhaka was also appended to each book. James Atkinson wrote these accounts, with engravings by Edwin Landseer. The Antiquities of Dacca became an important social document of the period.

Whilst in Dacca, D'oyly met the celebrated artist, George Chinnery,[10] who spent a great deal of time staying with D’Oyly during his early career. The pair became close friends and went on several expeditions together. Chinney had a considerable influence on the development of D'Oyly's artistic style. D'Oyly collaborated with Christopher Webb Smith in producing a number of books. Two of these were Feathered Game of Hindostan (1828) and Oriental Ornithology (1829), Webb Smith depicting the birds and the foliage, and D'Oyly doing the backgrounds.[11] One of D'Oyly's most productive periods was while he was Patna (1821-1831), where he sts of producing numerous paintings and sketches. He has been described as possessing, "the accomplishments of a man of taste, sketched cleverly in watercolours, and was the leading dilettante of Calcutta society at that time." [12]

D’Oyly and his second wife were sociable, hospitable, witty conversationalists and active members of colonial society. But, they were not snobs and disliked the formality and pretensions associated with English society in India. [13] The couple regularly invited new British arrivals as guests in their private home, often for extended periods. The painter, George Chinnery, stayed with the D’Oylys in Dacca during 1802-03. [14] Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800-1894), scholar, diplomat and amateur artist, also stayed with the couple when he first arrived in India in the 1820s. The D’Oyly’s introduced him to society and helped him establish connections with high officials of the Indian government. Hodgson and the D’Oylys shared an interest in the arts. They became lifelong friends. Chinnery painted at least two portraits of the couple.[15]

D’Oyly retired to Livorno in Italy where he died on 21 September, 1845. [16] He died without issue.

Works[]

He has been described as “the most prolific artist in India of his time”.[17] His work was influenced by his friend, the painter, George Chinnery, who stayed with D’Oyly and his wife in Dacca in 1802-03. [18] He produced landscapes, scenes of Indian life, portraits and caricatures primarily in watercolour and also wrote satirical verse.[19] He established his own publishing operation, the Bihar Lithography Press, at Patna in the 1820s to publish his lithographs and engravings. [20]

A unique feature of his illustrations is the representation of relations between colonials and Indians.[21] Unlike other artists of the period, D’Oyly was not afraid to depict drunkenness and debauchery in his illustrations.[22]

His published work, which was invariably heavily illustrated, canvassing a variety of subject matter – from natural history through to social satire and were written in prose or occasionally in verse. [23] At times, he collaborated with other scholars on certain works. One such collaboration was with the diplomat and scholar Christopher Webb-Smith, his wife’s first cousin, whose primary interest was ornithology. They published The Feathered Game of Hindostan (1828) and Oriental Ornithology (1829) and worked on The Birds, Flowers, and Scenery of the Cape which was never published. [24] He also collaborated with Captain Thomas Williamson on the “The Costumes and Customs of Modern India” (c.1830).[25]

His 1828 work, Tom Raw, the Griffin (which scholars believe was one of his earliest books written in around 1811 but published later) is an illustrated, satirical novella, written in verse and which relates the adventures of a cadet in the service of the East India Company. [26]

Although his artistic output was essentially an amateur activity in the sense that it did not interfere with his position at the East India Company, his work was far from amateurish. His scenes of British life in India in the early 19th-century attracted a large audience, especially amongst members of colonial society. His publications were sold in London where they were popular amongst those with an interest in the Orient. [27]

Cover of Views of Calcutta, 1848

In Patna, D’Oyly was at the centre of a flourishing artistic circle made up of both British and Indian artists. [28] British artists in India, including D’Oyly, Chinnery and Webb Smith, exposed local native artists to landscapes, natural history and portraiture. [29] Charles D'Oyly employed a Patna artist Jairam Das, trained in the Mughal tradition, as his assistant in the lithographic press. [30] On the other hand, native techniques and a local touch imbued the British paintings with an identifiable Anglo-Indian character; a blend of Indian and European traditions that ultimately became known as Company painting. [31]

Select list of publications[]

The majority of his publications were folios of engravings or lithographs, occasionally in collaboration with other artists. Certain publications included a substantial amount of text. Those works published in conjunction with Christopher Webb Smith, for example, included a two to three-page description accompanying each illustration, with the commentary provided by Captain Thomas Williamson.

Sole-authored

  • Antiquities of Dacca, London 1814 – a folio of 40 engravings [32]
  • Behar Amateur Lithographic Scrapbook, Patna, Lithographic Press, 1830 – 36 lithographs (includes drawings by George Chinnery, Lady D’Oyly and others) [33]
  • Tom Raw, the Griffin, 1828 – an illustrated social satire in verse [34]
  • Indian Sports, Patna, Behar Lithographic Press, 1829 [35]
  • Costumes of India, Behar Lithographic Press, 1830 [36]
  • Sketches of the New Road in a Journey from Calcutta to Gyah, Asiatic Lithographic Company's Press, 1830 [37]
  • Views of Calcutta and its Environs, 1848 [38]
  • Eight Months’ Experience of the Sepoy Revolt in 1857, Henry Shipp, 1891[39]

Collaborations

  • The European in India, Edward Orme, 1813 – with text by Thomas Williamson and illustrations by D’Oyly and others[40]
  • The Costumes and Customs of Modern India - with text by Thomas Williamson and illustrations by Charles D’Oyly, London, Edward Orme, 1813 [41]
  • Amateurs Repository of Indian Sketches, Asiatic Lithographic Company Press, 1828 (in collaboration with Philippe Savignhac, George Chinnery and James Princep and others) [42]

with text by Charles Williamson, illustrations by Charles D’Oyly and Christopher Webb Smith[43]

  • Oriental Ornithology, Behar Lithographic Press, Patna, 1829 – with text by Charles Williamson and illustrations by Charles D’Oyly and Christopher Webb Smith [44]

Legacy[]

A number of D’Oyly’s publications, notably Antiquities of Dacca, which is now published as Dhaka in Bangladesh, have been reprinted in recent editions on account of their historical and cultural significance. Other collections of drawings and notes, were published posthumously. Two such works are Daily Life in the Early Eighteen-Thirties Illustrated with the Hitherto Unpublished Johannesburg Album of Sketches by Sir Charles D'Oyly (1898) and The Cape Sketchbooks of Sir Charles D'Oyly 1832-1833 (1968) [45]

In 1848 Dickinson & Co., 114 New Bond Street, London, published D'Oyly's Calcutta Drawings in a large folio-size book titled Views of Calcutta and its Environs in 1848. The original drawings for this work were probably made between 1833 and 1838 while D'Oyly was Senior Member of the Board of Customs, Salt, and Opium and Marine Board in Calcutta, but some must have been completed between 1839 and 1845 when he retired. The complete work was published after D'Oyly's death in Italy in 1845.

Gallery[]

Engravings from D'Oyly's Antiquities of Dacca first published c. 1814

  • Bastion of the Lal Bagh, Dacca

  • Account of Dacca a Hut beside a Tomb

  • A Tantee or Indian Weaver

  • Mosque on the Mug-Bazar road, Dacca

  • Remains of a Bridge near the Tantee Bazar, Dhaka

  • Ruins of Tungy Bridge

  • Paugla Pool, with Part of Dacca in the Extreme Distance

  • Part of the Interior of the City of Dacca

Prints from D'Oyly's Views of Calcutta and Environs, 1848

  • Views of Calcutta and Environs

  • Mosque at Borranipore

  • Town and Port of Calcutta

  • View on the Serampore Road

  • View in Clive Street

Arms[]

Coat of arms of Charles D'Oyly hide
D'Oyly (of Shottisham) Achievement.png
Crest
Out of a ducal coronet Or two wings erect Sable bezantée between which and resting on the strawberry leaf of the coronet an estoile of six points Argent.
Escutcheon
Gules three bucks' heads cabossed Argent.
Motto
Do Noe Ylle Quoth D'Oylle (Do No Ill, Quoth Doyle) [46]

See also[]

Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
John Hadley D'Oyly 		Baronet
(of Shottisham)
1818–1845 		Succeeded by

References[]

  1. ^ Khan, W.A., Sir Charles D'Oyly, 7th Baronet, The Daily Star, 8 January, 2018, https://www.thedailystar.net/in-focus/sir-charles-doyly-7th-baronet-1516348
  2. ^ Archer, M., “The Talented Baronet: Charles D’Oyly and His Sketches,” Conoisseur, Connoisseur vol. 175 November 1970, pp. 173–81
  3. ^ The Peerage Online,http://www.thepeerage.com/p37206.htm
  4. ^ Burke, J., A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, Colburn & Company, 1852, p. 324 -
  5. ^ "Christopher Webb Smith (1793-1871) and Sir Charles William d'Oyly (1781-1845)".
  6. ^ Stephen, L. and Lee, Sir S., Dictionary of National Biography, Smith, Elder, & Company, 1888, p. 418; Note: Secondary sources give conflicting dates D’Oyley’s second marriage. Some claim the marriage occurred in 1817; See, for example: Conner, P., George Chinnery: 1774-1852; Artist of India and the China Coast, Antique Collectors Club Limited, 1993, p.95 or Archer, M. and Lightbown, R.W., India Observed: India as Viewed by British Artists, 1760-1860, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982, p. 71 while other sources give the earlier date of 1815; See, for example: Sanger, K. and Kinnaird, A., Tree of Strings: Crann nan teud: A History of the Harp in Scotland, Routledge, 2015, pp 202-03 or The South Park Street Cemetery, Calcutta, Association for the Preservation of Historical Cemeteries in India, 1978, p. 6
  7. ^ Archer, M., “The Talented Baronet: Charles D’Oyly and His Sketches,” Conoisseur, vol. 175 November 1970, pp. 173–81
  8. ^ Debrett, J., The Baronetage of England, Volume 1, 1824, p. 325; 'The Peerage Online,http://www.thepeerage.com/p37206.htm
  9. ^ Partapaditya, P., Changing Visions, Lasting Images: Calcutta Through 300 Years, Marg Publications, 1990, p. 58
  10. ^ Sotheby's, Catalog Note, Online: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/modern-and-contemporary-south-asian-art-including-indian-miniature-paintings/lot.17.html
  11. ^ "Extracts from the Book 'Indian Life and Landscapes by Western Artists'". Archived from the original on 2011-02-25. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
  12. ^ Hunter, W.W., Life of Brian Houghton Hodgson: British Resident at the Court of Nepal, Asian Educational Services, 1991, p. 281
  13. ^ Archer, M., “The Talented Baronet: Charles D’Oyly and His Sketches,” Conoisseur, Connoisseur vol. 175 November 1970, pp. 173–81
  14. ^ Ross, R., Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750–1870: A Tragedy of Manners, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 125
  15. ^ Conner, P., George Chinnery: 1774-1852 : Artist of India and the China Coast, Antique Collectors Club Limited, 1993, p.95
  16. ^ Khan, W.A., Sir Charles D'Oyly, 7th Baronet, The Daily Star, 8 January, 2018, https://www.thedailystar.net/in-focus/sir-charles-doyly-7th-baronet-1516348
  17. ^ De Silva,P., Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c. 1785-1845: Visualising Identity and Difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, p. 153
  18. ^ Ross, R., Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750–1870: A Tragedy of Manners, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 125
  19. ^ Ross, R., Status and Respectablity in the Cape Colony, 1750–1870: A Tragedy of Manners, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 125; Leppert, R., The Sight of Sound: Music, Representation, and the History of the Body, p 259, 34n
  20. ^ Leppert, R., The Sight of Sound: Music, Representation, and the History of the Body, p 259, 34n
  21. ^ De Silva, P., Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c. 1785-1845: Visualising Identity and Difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, pp 175-178
  22. ^ Ross, R., Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750–1870: A Tragedy of Manners, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 125
  23. ^ Nair, P. R., Calcutta Bevy: A Collection of Rare Poems, Punthi Pustak, 1989, p. 203
  24. ^ Archer, M., “The Talented Baronet: Charles D’Oyly and His Sketches,” Conoisseur, Connoisseur vol. 175 November 1970, pp. 173–81
  25. ^ De Silva, P., Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c. 1785-1845: Visualising Identity and Difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, p. 90
  26. ^ De Silva, P., Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c. 1785-1845: Visualising Identity and Difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, p. 158-179
  27. ^ De Silva, P., Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c. 1785-1845: Visualising Identity and Difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, pp 153-54
  28. ^ De Almeida, H. and Gilpin, G.H., Indian Renaissance: British Romantic Art and the Prospect of India, Ashgate Publishing, 2005, p. 322, 102n
  29. ^ Murphy, V., Archer, M. and Parlett, G., Victoria and Albert Museum, [Indian Art Series], Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1992; p. 85; Rekha, N., “The Patna School of Painting: A Brief History, 1760-1880,” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 72, no. I, 2011, pp. 997-1007, https://www.jstor.org/stable/44146791
  30. ^ Chaitanya, K., A History of Indian Painting, Vol. 2, Abhinav Publications, 1976, p. 103
  31. ^ Brown, R.M., The Architecture and Urban Space of Early Colonial Patna, University of Minnesota, 1999, p. 161 and p. 162
  32. ^ ”Charles D’Oyly’s Antiquities of Dacca”, Oriental Herald & Journal of General Literature, Volume 11, no. 34, 1826, pp 310-315; De Silva, P., Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c. 1785-1845: Visuali sing Identity and Difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, p. 154, 24n
  33. ^ De Silva, P., Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c. 1785-1845: Visualising Identity and Difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, p. 154, 24n
  34. ^ De Silva, P., Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c. 1785-1845: Visualising Identity and Difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, p. 158-179
  35. ^ De Silva, P., Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c. 1785-1845, Visualising Identity and Difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, p. 266
  36. ^ De Silva, P., Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c. 1785-1845, Visualising Identity and Difference, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, p. 266
  37. ^ Nugteren, A., “Rituals Around the Bodhi- tree in Bodhgaya in India,“ in: Platvoet van der Toorn (ed), Pluralism and Identity: Studies in Ritual Behaviour, Brill, 1995, p. 164: Sinha, N., Communication and Colonialism in Eastern India: Bihar, 1760s–1880s, Anthem Press, 2014, p. 49, 123n; Losty, J.P., "A Career in Art: Sir Charles D'Oyly", in Under the Indian Sun: British Landscape Artists, P. Rohatgi and P. Godrej (eds), Bombay, 1995, p. 90
  38. ^ Chattopadhyay, S., Representing Calcutta: Modernity, Nationalism, and the Colonial Uncanny, Psychology Press, 2005 , p. 92
  39. ^ Riddick, J.F., Who Was Who in British India, Greenwood Press, 1998, p., 107
  40. ^ Chakrabarti, H., European Artists and India, 1700-1900, Victoria Memorial, 1987, p. 39
  41. ^ Nevile, P., Sahibs' India: Vignettes from the Raj, Penguin Books India, 2010, p. 242
  42. ^ Bhattacharya, G., Akṣayanīvī: Essays Presented to Dr. Debala Mitra in Admiration of Her Scholarly Contributions, Sri Satguru Publications, 1991, p. 255; Catalogue of The Library of Horace Hayman Wilson, Comprising the Best Works in Sanskrit and Other Oriental Literature, S. Leigh Sotheby & J. Wilkinson, 1861, p. 11
  43. ^ Mahajan, J and Grewal, B., Splendid Plumage: Indian Birds by British Artists, Timeless Books, 2001, p. 65; Webb, D and Webb, T., The Anglo-Florentines: The British in Tuscany, 1814-1860, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019, p. 33
  44. ^ Webb, D and Webb, T., The Anglo-Florentines: The British in Tuscany, 1814-1860, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019, p. 33; Archer, M., British drawings in the India Office Library, Volume 3, India Office Library, H.M.S.O., 1969, p. 134
  45. ^ Losty, J.P., Sir Charles D'Oyly's lithographic press and his Indian assistants, in P. Gotrej and P. Rohatgi (eds), India: A Pageant of Prints, Bombay, Marg Publications, 1989, pp 135-160
  46. ^ Debrett's Peerage. 1985.

Further reading[]

  • Losty, J.P., "A Career in Art: Sir Charles D'Oyly", in Under the Indian Sun: British Landscape Artists, P. Rohatgi and P. Godrej (eds), Bombay, 1995, pp. 81–106
  • Archer, M., “The Talented Baronet: Charles D’Oyly and His Sketches,” Conoisseur, vol. 175 November 1970, pp. 173–81
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