Robert Home

Robert Home (1752-1834) was a British portrait oil painting artist who came to India (Madras/Chennai) in 1791. He also painted some historic scenes and landscapes. Born in Hull in United Kingdom as the son of an eminent army surgeon from Greenlaw in Berwickshire, he joined Royal Academy Schools in 1769. He went to Rome in 1773 for further training in painting under Angelica Kauffman and remained in Italy until 1777. From 1783-1789 he worked in Dublin and London before leaving for India in 1790. On 5th February 1791, Home was allowed to follow the Grand Army that moved towards Bangalore. Home painted some of his well known paintings for eg. 'The Hostage Princes leaving home with the Vakil, Ghulam Ali', 'Lord Cornwallis Receiving Tipu Sahib's Sons' etc during the period while he was in South India. In November 1792, Home came into contact with Thomas Daniell and William Daniell and inspired Home to continue painting landscapes. Home visited Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) in January/Februay 1793 and the two paintings he painted as a result titled 'Ruins of Mahabalipuram' is now in the collection of the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.

In 1795 Home arrived in Calcutta (Kolkata) and continued there as an established artist. Home was for some time Secretary of the Society and the first Library-in-Charge (1804) and donated his small but very valuable collection of works on Art. In 1814 when he moved to Lucknow and became a court painter of Nawab Ghazi-ud-din Haidar (1769-1827) and went to Kanpur in 1827 where he eventually died in 1834.

His 'Select Views in Mysore, the Country of Tippoo Sultan' were published in London and Madras in 1794, and in Calcutta he made 215 watercolours of Indian mammals, birds and reptiles, some of which were also worked up as oils.

References http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?search=ss&firstRun=true&sText=Robert+Home&LinkID=mp02250 http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=12504&amid=12504 http://www.weissgallery.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=6&tabindex=5&objectid=32764&categoryid=2636 http://www.tigerandthistle.net/scots425.htm http://asiaticsocietycal.com/library/index.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asiatic_Society