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Peter Anker in
film and print
BACK IN September last, I wrote of Danish
Tranquebar's Norwegian governor, Peter Anker, who was both artist
and collector besides being an indefatigable traveller. At the
time, I had been involved with a film Norwegian Television was
making on Anker, after the discovery of his paintings at the Oslo
University Museum of Cultural Heritage. They had been stored there
for 124 years, unseen by the public, and are now the focus of a
major exhibition at the museum, before going on to other
Scandinavian countries.
The film shown on Norwegian Television as well
as in the other Scandinavian countries has received ``extraordinary
reviews'', Beate Anstead, who was in Madras and Tranquebar to make
the film, tells me, and adds that it has also been welcomed
enthusiastically elsewhere in Europe. Her offer to television
channels in Delhi has, however, evoked no response, even though it
was offered for free. With Tranquebar, a bit of Tamil Nadu
awaiting development as a tourist destination, I wonder whether
some channel like Sun wouldn't like to get hold of it, showing it
both in English and in a Tamil translation too. It's a film that
tells quite a fascinating story.
The exhibition and the film were supported by a
lavish catalogue, almost a coffee table book, that tells the Peter
Anker story and features in colour several of his paintings as
well as others from his collection. Receiving the book, which I
had not known of, was an unexpected bonus for the bit of help I'd
given to the film. The catalogue discusses the voyage pittoresque
school of art, when artists voyaged to India (and other `exotic'
parts of the world) and returned home with portfolios and
landscapes for reproduction and sale. William Hodges, arriving in
Madras in 1780, was probably the first of them, but the Daniells,
Thomas and his nephew William, who arrived in India in 1784, were
probably the best known of them. Another was John Gantz, who
settled in Madras, ran a printing press and published a newspaper,
but appears to have also done quite a lot of painting around 1800.
Anker's work belongs to this school, but he was not the itinerant
painter; he was the governor who liked to travel and had been
trained to record what he saw in a country that fascinated him.
Born into a moderately wealthy family, Peter
Anker's interest in travel must have developed during those years
he spent in Britain and France, Germany and Italy studying and
sightseeing. In 1773, as a 29-year-old, he became a member of the
Dano-Norwegian Foreign Service and was posted to Hull as Consul.
With Britain in the forefront of the Industrial Revolution at the
time, part of Anker's duties was what today would be called `industrial
espionage'. His talent for drawing came in useful. ``He was
instructed to ensure that drawings (and information) were obtained
of these inventions (new machines and devices that the dawning
industrialisation utilised). Drawings of the steam engine and so
forth were pretty quickly sent....'' The drawings were
subsequently described as being ``so perfectly handsome... of the
utmost beauty''.
Anker went up the diplomatic ladder over the
next few years and was appointed Consul General for Britain in
1783. Three years later, he was offered the governorship of
Tranquebar. He grabbed the opportunity as much in the hope of
making some money as for wanting to paint the exotic East.
Anker's paintings in the catalogue include
several of the Big Temple in Tanjour, the Rock Fort in
Trichinopoly, a choultry by the Cauvery River in Majaveram,
Byteisperam Covil pagodas, Gingee fort, the Virvamally (Viralimali)
pagoda, and several views of Mahabalipuram. But what intrigued me
most was the picture featured here and captioned ``Free-standing
building with columns at Mahabalipuram near Madras''. During a
visit to Mahabalipuram, some time ago, I had found the structure
being restored by the Archaeological Survey of India and just a
couple of weeks before I received the Anker book I had,
coincidentally, seen the final restoration. Also featured here
today are the latest pictures of the tower, under restoration and
restored.
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