Tate receives Charles Greig’s collection of Indian art
Tate has received 50 works assembled by art historian Charles Greig, expanding its holdings of art made in India during the 18th and 19th centuries. The gift brings Indian and European artists into the collection together. A free Tate Britain display of the works is planned for 2028.
Arts··Night
A collection enters public ownership
Art historian Charles Greig has given Tate 50 works made by artists who lived or worked in India during the 18th and 19th centuries. The donation includes paintings, watercolours and miniatures assembled over decades. It was made outright without tax incentives, with public access among its aims. Tate Britain plans a free display in 2028.[1], [2]
Greig, a specialist in British India, said he spent 45 years assembling the works and saw himself as their temporary steward. He wants the collection kept intact so that people can study and enjoy it. Most of the works predate photography, and the paintings provide visual records of that earlier period.[2]
Indian and European artists together
The gift includes works by Indian artists Sita Ram and Ghulam Ali Khan alongside those of Johan Zoffany and Rudolf Swoboda, European artists who worked in India. Landscapes by William Hodges, Thomas Daniell and William Daniell are also included. Three Sita Ram watercolours bring Company paintings, made for British patrons, into Tate’s collection for the first time.[1]
The artists worked within changing networks of patronage under colonial rule. Sita Ram and Ghulam Ali Khan were among those whose customers included officials of the British East India Company. The three watercolours combine Indian painting traditions with European approaches to landscape and perspective. Tate says their arrival expands its account of art connected with the British Empire. In Greig’s account, the collection traces artistic encounters between Britain and the Indian subcontinent. The works reflect relationships between artists and patrons in a period when the East India Company’s power was expanding and British colonial rule shaped the region.[1]
Portraits and colonial histories
Zoffany’s 1784 portrait of Prince Jawan Bakht becomes one of only three portraits of individual Indian sitters by the painter in British public collections. Swoboda’s portrait of a soldier, made for Queen Victoria around 1886, will be his first work in a British museum collection. Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson said the gift would broaden the histories represented in the national collection.[1]
Zoffany travelled to India in 1783 after building his reputation in Britain. Swoboda’s portrait depicts a 23-year-old soldier in the Maharaja of Srinagar’s regiment; it was shown at London’s Empire of India Exhibition in 1895. Tate plans a dedicated display featuring works from the gift; Greig said the collection’s formation was his life’s primary passion.[2]
