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Art historian JP Losty has proposed that an anonymous Indian painter employed by British officer Walter Raleigh Gilbert may have worked with, or followed the example of, Company-period artist Sita Ram. The case rests on style, subject matter and geography—not a signed work or a record of apprenticeship. The artist is known as the “Gilbert artist,” and his identity remains unknown.
Who was the “Gilbert artist”?
The name is a convenient label for an unsigned painter whose surviving drawings are associated with Walter Raleigh Gilbert, a British officer serving in eastern and central India. Losty traces the artist’s work chiefly to 1822–1828. The drawings show that he was capable across several kinds of painting, but they do not reveal his name, where he first trained or what became of him after this period.
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Losty describes the possibility of a connection to Sita Ram this way: “Yet there is one artist, little known, who perhaps did work with Sita Ram and followed in his footsteps in producing picturesque topographical drawings with occasional forays into portraiture and natural history painting.” The important word is “perhaps”: this is a proposed artistic relationship, not an established teacher-and-student biography.
When and where did the artists’ paths overlap?
Sita Ram’s documented work for the Hastings party provides an earlier geographical link. In 1814–15, he painted a view of the Gilberts’ house above the Ganga at Kanpur. Walter Raleigh Gilbert later served in regions represented in the anonymous painter’s surviving work.
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| Date | What is documented |
|---|---|
| 1814–15 | Sita Ram made a view of the Gilberts’ house above the Ganga at Kanpur while recording the Hastings party’s journey. |
| 1822–1828 | The period in which Losty places the Gilbert artist’s surviving activity. |
| 1822–1828 | Gilbert served as Commandant of the Ramgarh Battalion at Hazaribagh. |
| 1825–1827 | Gilbert was also Political Agent for the South West Frontier, headquartered at Sambalpur; many of the artist’s associated drawings date to this period. |
The anonymous artist’s surviving subjects include Hazaribagh, Sambalpur and Surguja, as well as related places in eastern and central India. Gilbert’s earlier connection to the Gilberts’ Kanpur house gives a possible route by which the family knew of Sita Ram; it does not establish that the two painters met.
What connects the Gilbert artist to Sita Ram—and what differs?
Losty places the anonymous painter in a Murshidabad-derived style practiced in Kolkata. He sees affinities with Sita Ram in the loose, expressive brushwork and use of aerial perspective that give landscapes a soft, atmospheric quality. Those resemblances support a possible artistic connection, but are not proof of a personal one.
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| Feature | Sita Ram | Gilbert artist |
|---|---|---|
| Attribution | Named Company-period painter. | Anonymous; identified through drawings associated with Gilbert. |
| Style and technique | Picturesque landscapes with soft, expressive brushwork and aerial perspective. | Murshidabad-style training as practiced in Kolkata; similarly soft brushwork and aerial perspective. |
| Palette | More often pink and brown, according to Losty. | More often yellow and blue, according to Losty. |
| Other picturesque devices | The published account does not specify comparable devices. | Low viewpoints, internal light sources, dark skies, elongated figures and large trees. |
The differences matter as much as the similarities. Shared conventions can point toward a common artistic environment without demonstrating direct instruction. No surviving apprenticeship document or signed record links the Gilbert artist to Sita Ram.
What did the anonymous painter depict?
The artist’s range extends well beyond topographical views. His drawings combine places, people, animals, plants and scenes of colonial and local life:
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- Buildings and landscapes: the Gilberts’ bungalow on the Mahanadi at Sambalpur, the fort and old palace there, and a large banyan beside a river.
- Public and household life: the Maa Samaleswari temple, a nautch held by the Raja of Sambalpur, and Gilbert’s munshi and diwan at work in his bungalow.
- Portraits and animals: household staff and other servants, as well as Gilbert’s racehorse, “Beggar Girl.”
- Natural history: studies including a pink lotus and a maize plant, rendered with botanical details.
The variety makes the group valuable as more than a record of scenery: it captures aspects of patronage, domestic work and local life as well as the artist’s picturesque approach.
Where are the drawings held?
According to Losty’s 2019 account, the British Library holds fifteen large drawings associated with the 1825–27 Sambalpur and related period. Twelve were acquired in the early 1960s and three later. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds seven other drawings from the set. These institutional groups preserve substantial bodies of the artist’s work, though the attributions do not resolve his identity.
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Why were the Sambalpur views made?
The drawings belong to a period of British political involvement in a changing regional history. The Chauhan Rajputs were dispossessed by the Marathas in 1797; the British restored Raja Jait Singh in 1817. His son Maharaj Sai succeeded in 1820, and the state lapsed to the government after the last Raja died without an heir in 1849. The views of Sambalpur and its surroundings therefore document places and people within a period of shifting authority, not simply picturesque scenery.
The Gilberts also moved in a family circle interested in painting. Walter Raleigh Gilbert married Isabella Ross in 1814; her sister Eliza married amateur artist and patron Charles D’Oyly. Their contact with the Hastings circle may help explain how the Gilberts knew of Sita Ram and why they commissioned paintings. It remains context for the hypothesis, rather than evidence that identifies the painter.
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Why is the painter still anonymous?
The surviving works do not supply a name, and the available account does not document the artist’s earlier training or later career. Losty notes: “As so often with Indian artists, whether working under Indian or British patronage, we have no documentation to help with the identification of Gilbert’s artist, and his name never appears on any of his works.”
That absence sets the boundary of the attribution. The works can be discussed as a coherent group associated with Gilbert and compared stylistically with Sita Ram, but the evidence cited by Losty does not establish that the painter was Sita Ram’s student or even that they collaborated. “Protege” is best understood as a possibility suggested by their artistic relationship, not a confirmed identity or formal role.
Based on JP Losty’s article, “Raj-era painter Sita Ram went unnoticed for decades. Now, an art curator may have found his protege,” published by Scroll.in on 17 April 2019; Losty’s article first appeared on the British Library’s Asian and African studies blog.
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