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Download pdf Book : http://ia700307.us.archive.org/8/items/indianarchitectu00haveuoft/indianarchitectu00haveuoft.pdf

... An excellent find, RBSI ... Ernest Havell was an interesting fellow in his own right ~ a great supporter and promoter of Indian culture and heritage (especially its artistic traditions) at a time when this was a less than entirely fashionable position for an Englishman to maintain. I forward (below) his entry from the 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'~ that makes for interesting reading from both an Indian and from a British perspective : " Havell, Ernest Binfield (1861–1934), artist and art teacher, was born on 16 September 1861 at 1 Jesse Terrace, Reading, the second son and third child in the family of three sons and two daughters of Charles Richard Havell, professional artist, and his wife, Charlotte Amelia Lord. The Havell family had been leading artists and publishers since the late eighteenth century. He was educated at Reading School, and trained at the Royal College of Art, at Paris studios, and in Italy. Havell joined the Madras School of Industrial Arts as principal in 1884, a post he held until 1892, when he returned to England. He won early recognition with his report on Indian industrial arts, thus laying the foundations of his later influential doctrine on the Indian arts. The revival of traditional handloom weaving initiated by him was later to win the support of M. K. Gandhi. Appointed principal of the Calcutta School of Art and keeper of the Government Art Gallery in 1896, a post he held until 1906, Havell was responsible for momentous changes in the art school curriculum which led to the first Indian nationalist art movement, the Bengal school of painting, under the artist Abanindranath Tagore. Although a believer in Raj paternalism, Havell's aesthetically radical, anti-Renaissance, arts and crafts tenets, and his synthetic vision of architecture as unifying all the different traditional arts of India, helped undermine the primacy of salon art in India, hitherto identified as one of the triumphs of the Raj westernization of the subcontinent. Even though his period in Calcutta was extremely brief—for he was forced to retire in 1906 after a breakdown—Havell became celebrated in the West and in India for advocating the greatness of Indian art with a fervour that bordered on fanaticism. He was largely responsible for its recognition in the West: by his pioneering studies in ancient Indian art, such as Indian Sculpture and Painting (1908) and The Ideals of Indian Art (1911); by encouraging the fledgeling Bengal School with sustained writings on its behalf; and finally by helping to found the India Society with William Rothenstein, for many years the bastion of Indian culture in Europe. The society was set up in 1910 in the aftermath of the controversy surrounding the disparaging remarks of Sir George Birdwood about Indian art. Although Havell was away from Britain between 1916 and 1923 as a member of the British legation in Copenhagen, ‘India was his first and remained his only love.’ He plunged headlong into the controversy over the architectural style for New Delhi, urging the imperial government to adopt the Mughal style for its new capital as a gesture of goodwill towards their Indian subjects. The appointment of Sir Edwin Lutyens as the city's architect put an end to Havell's dream. None the less the pronounced Indian elements in the otherwise classical design of New Delhi were a tribute to Havell's persistence. Havell married Lili, daughter of Admiral George Jacobson, of the Danish royal navy, in 1894; they had one daughter. He died on 30 December 1934 at the Acland Nursing Home, Oxford, and was survived by his wife."

Thank you Julian Craig !...for this fascinating write-up on Ernest Havell. Such an important player for Indian art and architecture and how little most of us know about him ! His contributions are quite noteworthy (extracts from above)... : "...He won early recognition with his report on Indian industrial arts, thus laying the foundations of his later influential doctrine on the Indian arts. The revival of traditional handloom weaving initiated by him was later to win the support of M. K. Gandhi." "...Havell was responsible for momentous changes in the art school curriculum which led to the first Indian nationalist art movement, the Bengal school of painting, under the artist Abanindranath Tagore." "...He plunged headlong into the controversy over the architectural style for New Delhi, urging the imperial government to adopt the Mughal style for its new capital as a gesture of goodwill towards their Indian subjects. The appointment of Sir Edwin Lutyens as the city's architect put an end to Havell's dream. None the less the pronounced Indian elements in the otherwise classical design of New Delhi were a tribute to Havell's persistence."

looking for these books :(Views of Calcutta, 1786; Oriental Scenery, 1794),Picturesque Voyage to India (1810);Sir Charles D’ Oyly’s book, Views of Calcutta and Its Environs published in 1848...incase it is available cud you please share the digitized versions here..

Barleen Kaur : Impeccable choice ! : )

Please share incase you have a copy..

Barleen Kaur : Unable to find digitized versions of these marvelous plate books... but will post prints from these books.

Please do..eagerly waiting.