A landmark exhibition at DAG in New Delhi, showcases Emily Eden’s remarkable visual chronicle of nineteenth-century India through portraits, archives and paintings.
While books, letters and other documents are a great way to record historical changes for posterity, another wonderful medium is visual art. Artists have a knack of capturing nuanced elements of the times they live in quite distinctly from those put down in word.
Emily Eden, an artist, writer and keen observer, who travelled across northern India between 1836 and 1842, when the British Empire was thriving, had a knack for capturing stories through her singular art.
And now, her works have been given a platform to be examined and enjoyed at leisure by DAG.
‘Princes & People of India: Portraits by Emily Eden’, is an exhibition that brings to India for the first time, the complete published series of Emily Eden’s celebrated Portraits of the Princes and People of India (1844), the recently acquired Eden Family Archives, along with a rare set of Lahore Company School paintings. The exhibition has been curated by art historian and author Mary Ann Prior – a fitting choice to present the work of one of the most significant female-authored visual records of nineteenth-century India.
Opening on July 10, 2026 at DAG, New Delhi, Princes & People of India: Portraits by Emily Eden will be on view until August 1. Ashish Anand, CEO of DAG, shares, “Through portraits of kings and courtiers, warriors and attendants, travellers and servants, the exhibition reconstructs a vivid panorama of a world in transition – one that continues to shape the histories and identities of the present.
Creating an extraordinary visual record of a society in transition recording the people, places and encounters, at the centre of this exhibition lie Emily Eden’s celebrated portfolio of hand-coloured lithographs based on sketches made during her travels across northern India. Accompanied by her own descriptive texts, the publication combined visual documentation with sharp personal commentary, revealing a distinctive voice that was at once curious, perceptive and deeply engaged with the people she encountered. Capturing a moment of profound historical significance, documenting individuals and communities whose worlds would soon be transformed by shifting political realities and expanding colonial influence, the most compelling works are portraits associated with the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose Punjab kingdom represented one of the most powerful political forces in the region.”
The Eden Family Archives, recently acquired by DAG from the estate of Anthony Eden, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, are also on view for the first time. They include sketchbooks, journals, correspondence, original watercolours and family papers, and offer a glimpse of her creative process and the experiences that shaped her artistic practice.
Further complementing Eden’s work is a rare collection of Lahore Company School paintings dating back to the mid-19th century. Anand explains why he decided to include these in the show, “Produced in one of the last flourishing centres of Company painting in India, these works depict many of the same personalities, occupations and social types that appear in Eden’s images. Their inclusion creates a compelling dialogue between British and Indian artistic traditions, offering visitors an opportunity to consider parallel modes of representation emerging from different cultural perspectives. Together, these materials reveal the extent of her achievement and underscore her importance as one of the most significant women artists associated with British India.
He further adds, “Emily Eden occupies a unique position in the visual history of nineteenth-century India. Her portraits are remarkable not only for their artistic accomplishment but also for the breadth of people she chose to represent – from rulers and military leaders to attendants, artisans and communities encountered along the way. By bringing together her published works, personal archives and related material from Punjab, this exhibition offers a richer understanding of both the artist and the world she documented.”
“I was thrilled to be asked to curate this exhibition. Since first seeing a portfolio of Emily Eden’s Indian portraits over a decade ago, I’ve admired her work and wished to make it known to a wider audience. This wish has now been made possible through my collaboration with DAG, and it’s particularly poignant that we are able to bring attention to Emily’s extraordinary life, her paintings and drawings here in India, where many of them were originally produced”, says the curator, Mary Ann Prior.
The exhibition’s accompanying publication edited by Prior, includes contributions from leading scholars like Brigid Allen, Eleanor Nesbitt and F. S. Aijazuddin, and offers new perspectives on the intersection of art, politics, gender and empire, as seen through the eyes of Emily Eden. Prior here shows how Eden’s time in India developed her vision and practice. Speaking about the essays by the other contributors, she says, “Brigid Allen, a British political historian, places Emily and her siblings in the context of their turbulent times; Eleanor Nesbitt, a specialist in Sikh history, analyses the Edens’ encounter with Ranjit Singh’s court, to consider what they made of each other, politically and personally; the veteran scholar and journalist F.S. Aijazuddin, who has written extensively on art emanating from Lahore, here discusses the group of Company paintings that provide a fascinating counterpoint to Eden’s work. Together, these authors give us a fully rounded picture of one of British India’s most interesting and least explored artists.”
“While Emily Eden has long been recognised as a prominent literary figure and correspondent, her achievements as an artist have often received less sustained attention. By bringing together her published works, archival material and related visual cultures, Princes & People of India positions Eden among the most important artistic chroniclers of nineteenth century India. More than a historical survey, Princes & People of India invites audiences to reconsider nineteenth-century India through the eyes of a woman whose curiosity, artistic discipline and powers of observation produced an enduring visual archive,” ends Anand.
*Noor Anand Chawla pens lifestyle articles for various publications and her blog www. nooranandchawla.com.
