The Facts
Tate has received a donation of 50 artworks by artists active in India during the 18th and 19th centuries, gifted outright by Charles Greig, an art historian and scholar of British India. The collection includes oil paintings, watercolours and miniatures by Indian artists such as Sita Ram and Ghulam Ali Khan, as well as European artists including Johann Zoffany and Rudolf Swoboda. Key highlights include Zoffany's 1784 portrait of Prince Jawan Bakht and Swoboda's portrait of a Sepoy, the first work by the artist to enter a British museum collection. The public will see the works in a dedicated free display at Tate Britain in 2028.
The Signal
The gift significantly strengthens Tate's holdings of art from the British Empire, introducing the genre of Company paintings to its collection for the first time. It represents a major institutional effort to address cross-cultural exchange and colonial history within the national collection of British art. For scholars and collectors, the donation provides a coherent, research-backed trove that illuminates artistic networks in South Asia under British rule.
- Artists: Sita Ram, Ghulam Ali Khan, Johann Zoffany, Rudolf Swoboda, William Hodges, Thomas Daniell, William Daniell
- People: Charles Greig, Alex Farquharson
- Museums: Tate
- Locations: London
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