PORTRAITS OF A PEOPLE

Etchings by the colonial Flemish artist F. Baltazard Solvyns are getting a new lease of life in an exhibition at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai

- Amit Dixit

The Flemish artist F. Baltazard Solvyns (1760-1824) lived in Calcutta in the 1790s and produced a sizeable set of etchings depicting the common people and scenes he encountered during his stay. An exhibition titled People of Bengal: Coloured Etchings by Baltazard Solvyns at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai has brought together 288 etchings from the second, enlarged edition of Solvyns's Les Hindoûs, which was published in Paris between 1808 and 1812 in four volumes. The exhibition, which is on till June 29, has been curated by DAG, which owns the etchings.