MRINALINI RAJAGOPALAN: About Face: The Portraits and Architectural Façades of Begum Samru (1805-1836)
UIC Art History Colloquium
February 28, 2020
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
This presentation explores the art and architecture patronized by the dowager ruler Begum Samru (b. circa 1750 –d. 1836). The begum rose from humble beginnings as a dancing girl in Mughal Delhi to become the favored companion of a European mercenary, Walter Reinhardt. Following his death, she inherited his army and estates, both of which she considerably expanded. The begum amassed wealth, position, and power through savvy alliances with the Mughals and the English East India Company. She built several mansions where she hosted, entertained, and consulted with her male allies. In this presentation, I analyze the facades of two of the begum’s buildings (her large mansion in Delhi and the Catholic church she built in her territory of Sardhana) alongside her portraits, which she commissioned and often gifted to her political counterparts. While the architectural façades were spatially situated mechanisms by which the begum announced her willingness to engage with powerful counterparts in the immediate region, her portraits functioned as portable façades establishing connections as far as the Vatican and the French court. I argue that these faces of the begum functioned as agentic surfaces that blurred the boundary between the intimate private self and the public political arena. As they mediated the male gaze, political ambitions, religious piety, and domestic invitations these facades created unique possibilities for the begum to accrue power within and outside northern India.
Mrinalini Rajagopalan is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. While her research is focused on the architectural and urban cultures of modern India, her teaching is more globally oriented and addresses the challenges and possibilities of modern and contemporary built environments. She is the author of Building Histories: The Archival and Affective Lives of Five Monuments in Modern Delhi (Chicago, 2016) and co-editor of Colonial Frames, National Histories: Imperial Legacies, Architecture, and Modernity (Ashgate, 2012).
This event is co-sponsored by UIC's Department of History.
Date posted
Feb 6, 2020
Date updated
Feb 21, 2020