{"id":876329,"date":"2026-04-06T18:13:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/876329\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T18:13:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:13:26","slug":"monumental-37ft-long-indian-scroll-goes-on-public-view-for-the-first-time-at-yale-center-for-british-art-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/876329\/","title":{"rendered":"Monumental 37ft-long Indian scroll goes on public view for the first time at Yale Center for British Art – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following two years of conservation, a 37ft-long, early 19th-century scroll is on public view for the first time at the Yale Center for British Art<\/a> (YCBA) in New Haven, Connecticut. Known as the Lucknow scroll, the object is part of the exhibition Painters, Ports and Profits: Artists and the East India Company, 1750-1850 (until 21 June), bringing questions of empire, commerce and artistic exchange into material focus. Due to the scroll\u2019s size and fragility, half of it will be exhibited at a time and unrolled over the course of the show, giving repeat visitors a chance to see different sections. (Displaying the object in portions also helps reduce light exposure.)<\/p>\n

Scrolls range in scale from handheld objects to ones even larger than the Lucknow example, and they have served a variety of purposes. \u201cWithin artistic traditions on the Indian subcontinent, narrative scrolls were popular forms of art,\u201d the exhibition curators Laurel O. Peterson and Holly Shaffer tell The Art Newspaper. \u201cThese were made for people at all levels of society. They often tell devotional narratives, unfolding as the scroll is unrolled. In early 19th-century Britain, scrolls were used for entertainment at home and might be a souvenir.\u201d Though printed in multiples, scrolls were considered luxury objects.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Emma Hartman, the assistant conservator of paper at Yale University Art Gallery, unrolling the Lucknow Scroll. Photo: Anita Dey, image courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art<\/p>\n

The Lucknow scroll, or Lucknow from the Gomti, was made between 1821 and 1826 and comprises 33 joined sheets of laid paper, executed in watercolour, gouache and gold. It offers an expansive view of Lucknow in northern India, as seen from across the Gomti River.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can think about the Lucknow scroll in terms of storytelling, as it allows the viewer to follow a journey along the banks of the river,\u201d the curators say. \u201cThe English-language key written in 1826 describes the work as a \u2018Panoramic View of Lucknow\u2019, suggesting a link between the two forms\u2014but panoramas represent the landscape from a fixed viewing point, rather than a continuous one.\u201d<\/p>\n

From palaces to warehouses<\/p>\n

Created during the reign of Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah\u2014who declared independence from the Mughal emperor in 1819 and embarked on ambitious building campaigns\u2014the scroll captures palaces and mosques, as well as workshops, warehouses and vernacular structures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scroll has a fascinating story both historically and materially, in part because it\u2019s so mysterious,\u201d the curators say. \u201cWe don\u2019t know the names of the artists who made it.\u201d The patron is also unknown, they add, but its inscriptions \u201cplace little emphasis on the company, signalling that the scroll was likely made for, or in honour of, the ruler\u2014perhaps at the request of an elite woman in his retinue\u201d. It could also have been part of a military or political negotiation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Anita Dey, the assistant paper conservator at the Yale Center For British Art, and Emma Hartman, the assistant conservator of paper at Yale University Art Gallery, examining the Lucknow Scroll under ultraviolet light. Photo: Jessica Makin, image courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art<\/p>\n

Over the years, the scroll developed areas of pigment instability and structural weakness. \u201cThe primary conservation challenges stemmed from the scroll\u2019s complex layered construction,\u201d says Anita Dey, the assistant paper conservator at the YCBA. \u201cIt is composed of multiple sheets of paper joined together with subsequent linings of another paper layer and a cotton-textile backing. While this structure helped protect the scroll from wear associated with handling through its lifetime, it also introduced significant planar distortions that prevented the object from lying flat as originally intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservation treatment at the YCBA began with stabilisation to prevent further loss and flattening the object, ensuring it could be safely unrolled and displayed. Among the noteworthy findings revealed during conservation was a watermark for the British mill of James Whatman, a discovery that helped narrow the scroll\u2019s date and understand it within broader trade networks.<\/p>\n