Follow this trail of paint...

Art Vanity

By 1778, the East India Company had already completed 178 years since receiving its first charter to trade in the Indies by Queen Elizabeth I. By then, the company had become one of the most prosperous entities in the world.

The chairman and the 24 directors of the company had moved to their opulent office, the East India House, on Leadenhall Street in London. The John Company, as it had come to be known, had established territorial control of 7% of India.

The board of directors, in all their vainglory, commissioned the well-known Italian artist of the time, Spiridione Roma, for a spectacular illustration of how Britain had enriched Britannia by monopolising trade with India, China, and Indonesia.

The directors wanted Spiridione to depict the virtually divine, ordained pre-eminence of Britain over the East, and how Asia was willingly offering its riches to Britannia through the trading supremacy established by the East India Company.

Spiridione’s painting, measuring 10 feet across and 8 feet high, was fixed to the ceiling of the company’s Revenue Committee room, where the fat-cat directors monitored the flow of wealth from the East. The painting was brazenly titled The Offering.

Central to the theme in The Offering is the depiction of Britannia by a fair angelic lady sitting on a rocky high-throne to the left. In front of her is a dark-skinned lady representing India. Yet another lady kneeling is China. India is shown offering her crown, along with rubies and pearls, to Britannia.

China presents her tribute in the form of a chest of tea and porcelain. From the palm grove to the right, Indonesian labourers are shown carrying spices. Bales of cloth are brought in by an elephant and a camel. Mercury, the God of Commerce, is shown directing the labourers westward.

At Britannia’s feet sits the imposing British Lion and the bearded Old Father Thames. Far beyond in the ocean, a ship belonging to the John Company is sailing with the treasures of the East.

The East India House was adorned with several other similar depictions of Britain’s hegemony over Asia. Many artefacts looted from India were displayed in there, including the French-made automated tiger of Tipu Sultan.

However, there were many prominent citizens in Britain who were appalled by the blatant exploitation of the East by the John Company. Paradoxically, many politicians were shareholders in the East India Company. They turned a blind eye to the unethical actions of the company in India and elsewhere.

The 1857 uprising brought an end to East India Company’s rule in India. The John Company was so discredited by then that the East India House was brought down in 1861. Most of the artefacts were moved to other museums.

The Offering was shifted to the India office. It was later moved to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Whitehall, and still remains mounted on the Gurkha staircase.