Rare watercolour 'Noblewomen playing chess' dating 1780-1800 from India

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Hi everyone,


A little time travel into the past. Here is an amazing photo sent to us by Black & White India chess magazine. It's titled 'Noblewomen playing chess', Lucknow, India in 1780-1800.

Attributed to Nevasi Lai (India, fl. c. 1760-75), Noblewomen playing chess, ca. 1780-1800, India, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 47 x 62 cm), Muséenational des Arts asiatiques – Guimet, Paris, MA 12112, Photo © Musée national des Arts asiatiques Guimet, Paris, France (MA12112)/Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris/Art Resource, NY (ART408511 by Thierry Olivier.

Lucknow historians say this watercolour is one of the rare paintings that survived the Siege of 1857/8 (Mutiny for Indians, Siege for British). Lucknow was a rich and prosperous city before the event and the nobles led a luxurious in the city. This painting depicting two noblewomen playing chess whilst family members and attendants gather to watch and relax during the heat of the day.

Nevasi Lal was an artist working in the city towards the end of the 18th century. It is likely that the composition may have been inspired by a painting by the British artist Tilly Kettle. Kettle visited Faizabad in 1772 and it is presumed that a large number of his works were moved to Lucknow following the removal of the capital there in 1776. These survived there until the Mutiny of 1857 and were therefore available for local artists to study and copy.

Henry Thomas Colebrooke, the eminent Sanskrit scholar who worked in India between 1782 and 1814, is believed to have brought this picture back to England. Colebrooke was the son of Sir George Colebrooke, M.P., the Chairman of the East India Company 1769. Henry Thomas was first appointed to a Writership in the Bengal Service in 1782. By 1786 he was the assistant collector at Tirhut and from there he proceeded to Purneah. It was during this period that he became a contributor to Asiatic Researchers. In 1795 he moved to Mirzapur, near Benares, from where he published three years later his famous and influential Digest of Hindoo Law. In the early years of the 19th century he was made Professor of Hindoo Law at Fort William College, Calcutta, where he also sat on the Judiciary. In 1807 he was appointed to the East India Office Council. On his return to England in 1814 he presented his highly important collection of Sanskrit manuscripts to India House (now in the British Library).

Our friends at Black & White add that: However, later followed a movie by Satyajit Ray titled 'Shatranj ke Khiladi' which depicted how noblemen were so lost in a game of chess that they wouldn't budge even on being told that the British soldiers had arrived at the gates of the city! Since then, the popularity of chess has waned in the city. Traditional players still love the game but over the years chess has become synonymous with "wasting time" and "idle youth". Hopefully, things might change slowly as more parents begin to see how chess benefits in education too.

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