Out of Phase: Charles W. Barlett

One of the most striking and haunting illustrators of pre-partition India was, without question, Mr. Charles W. Barlett. Many European artists attempted to render the landscape and scenes of the sub-continent according to European conventions, some better than others, but few forged an authentically oriental mode which was at the same time faithful to the European observer. Mr. Barlett's work is outstanding in exactly this respect.

The characteristic feature of his style is that he combines a Japanese woodblock technique ( the ukiyo-e or 'Floating World' style) with subjects taken from the Indian landscape, along with portrayals of Mahometan and Hindoo life. He had the usual training in the European tradition but early in his career encountered the increasingly popular Japanese minimalist aesthetic. Accordingly, he later went to Japan to study and there mastered Japanese techniques. His second wife 'Kate' was from a wealthy family and had the resources to enable them to travel widely. This included a prolonged tour of British India. Eventually the couple settled in Hawaii and never returned to England. He is best known and often counted as an artist of those luscious islands.

The present writer is of the view that his woodblocks of Indian subject matter, made in and after 1913, are superb. Several of the better examples can be seen below. His studies of the Taj Mahal in Agra are especially outstanding. Here we see a beautiful and unique conjunction of orientalist sensitivity: a Japanese style applied to Indian subject matter by an English artist in a compelling and seamless synthesis.This is everything that is best about the orientalist artists, the capacity of assimilate and transcend and yet remain themselves. Select a picture to see the enlarged version.