The Embassy of Hyderbeck to Calcutta, from the Vizier of Oude, by way of Patna, in the Year 1788, to meet Lord Cornwallis

Location

Country: India
City: New Delhi
Place: British High Commission

This lively and extraordinary scene from a painting by Zoffany shows the mission of minister Haidar Beg Khan (‘Hyderbeck’ in the print title) to meet the Governor-General of India, Charles, first Marquess Cornwallis, in Calcutta. The mission’s purpose was primarily to negotiate a reduction in contributions paid to the East India Company by the Nawab (ruler) of Oudh.

However, the main subject of the picture is not Haider Beg Khan himself, who can just be made out under an umbrella on a distant elephant in the van, but the multitude of Indian people, either forming part of the train or watching it. Zoffany has also seized on a dramatic moment, when the huge elephant in the centre foreground has abruptly rounded on the ‘mahout’ (or elephant worker) riding the animal and caught the man with his trunk.

This engraving by Richard Earlom was made after the painting Zoffany exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1796. The painting is now in the collection of the Victoria Memorial, a museum in Calcutta.

Portrait and history painter Johann Zoffany was born Johannes Zauffaly in Frankfurt-am-Main. After training in Regensburg, he studied in Rome (1750-57), before moving to London in 1760. He was introduced to the royal family in 1764 and George III was so impressed by his royal portraits and groups that he nominated Zoffany a Royal Academician in 1769. Zoffany was in India from 1783 to 1789, where he portrayed British residents and native princes. After his return, he painted few pictures of consequence and by 1800 had given up painting altogether. Several of his Indian works are in the Victoria Memorial, Calcutta. One of his best-known works, ‘The Cock Match at Lucknow’ painted for Warren Hastings, was purchased by the Tate in 1994.
Engraver Richard Earlom was born and died in London. He studied under Italian artist Giovanni Battista Cipriani but later taught himself to engrave in mezzotint. In 1765 Earlom was employed by Boydell to make a series of drawings from paintings at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, which Earlom also engraved in mezzotint. His subjects include fruit and flower pieces after Dutch artists Van Os and Jan van Huysum, and historical and figure subjects, such as ‘Agrippina’ after Benjamin West and ‘Love in Bondage’ after Guido Reni. Earlom also engraved works after Johan Zoffany and Sir Joshua Reynolds. In addition, his series of 200 mezzotint facsimiles of the drawings and sketches of Claude Lorraine was published as ‘Liber veritatis’ between 1777 and 1819.

Places

India, Calcutta, Bengal

Subjects

ladder, wagon, topography, genre, cow, elephant, horse, Indian, man, woman, 18th century costume, basket, diplomat, musket

Materials & Techniques

mezzotint

Artist

Johann Zoffany (1733 - 1810)
Richard Earlom (1743 - 1822)

Title

The Embassy of Hyderbeck to Calcutta, from the Vizier of Oude, by way of Patna, in the Year 1788, to meet Lord Cornwallis

Date

published 12 July 1800

Medium

Mezzotint

Acquisition

Purchased from Colnaghi, April 1952

GAC number

1566