2018 Public Lecture, Kolkata

Dr Andrew Rudd, Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter, will deliver a presentation titled “Nature Surveyed”. This will be followed by refreshments and the opportunity to meet Exeter’s Vice-Chancellor, Sir Steve Smith, as well as other representatives from the University and fellow alumni.

The lecture will take place 18:00 to 19:00 followed by refreshments 19:00 – 19:30.

How to book:  This event is free of charge to attend but you are required to book your place.

Lecture Synopsis:

How colonial officials and Indian artists in eighteenth-century Bengal shaped how we see the natural world

An unanswered question today concerns how we should look at nature. The burgeoning field of nature writing, new scientific discoveries and hugely popular natural history documentaries such as the BBC’s Blue Planet all advance human understanding of the non-human world. This talk, which emerges from a collaborative project between Victoria Memorial Hall, the University of Exeter and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery Exeter, traces these modern developments back to a seminal moment in natural history and the depiction of nature in art, located here in Bengal at the end of the eighteenth century. Indian artists with colonial officials acting as their patrons produced thousands of nature drawings fusing Indo-Islamic and European systems of knowing the natural world, of names and languages, of aesthetics and taste, and of often colourful individuals and institutions. The talk will concentrate on two collections of nature drawings associated with the Botanic Gardens (founded in 1787) and the Asiatic Society of Bengal (founded in 1784) to show the lasting influence and continued relevance of this remarkable meeting of art and science.

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