“Sir Edward Hyde East” by Sir Francis Chantrey

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Sir Edward Hyde East (1764-1847)

Sir Francis Chantrey (1741-1841)

Marble

1829

High Court

Calcutta (now Kolkata)

India

Calcutta's colonial dignitaries were honoured just as their peers were at home, and by the very best of contemporary sculptors. [Commentary continues below. Mouse over the text for links.]

Related material

British India (homepage)

Walter B. Granville's High Court, Kolkata (Calcutta)

Statue of David Hare, by E. H. Baily

Photograph © Richard Barnes and (outside link) Frontier Publishing. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Caption material also kindly provided by Richard Barnes. Commentary below by Jacqueline Banerjee.

Sir Edward Hyde East was among the earliest to receive such an honour. Born in Jamaica in 1764 to a family whose wealth and prestige derived mainly from their sugar plantations in Jamaica, East went to Magdalen College, Oxford, then entered the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar in 1786. A politician as well as legal writer — and co-editor of the innovatory Term Reports in the Court of King's Bench — he was admired for his "unrivalled oratory and brilliant rhetoric" ("Whig Club"). He went out to 1ndia in 1813 as Chief Justice of Bengal, something to which he had long aspired (see Spencer). He was also much involved with education there, and has been credited with the establishment of the Hindu College (later called Presidency College), opened in 1817 in Kolkata — though the Calcutta Christian Observer of June 1832 insisted that "the merit of originating the Hindu College must in justice be ascribed to Mr [David] Hare; and others were involved as well. However, East's support must have carried great weight. Already a baronet, East was given a knighthood on the occasion of William IV's first Levee, on 21 July 1830 ("Court Circular").

Chantrey's statue, paid for by public subscription, was shown at the Royal Academy in 1829 ("Obituary," 102) and mentioned in the Times of 11 May that year as "an admirable production." It is touching to see it garlanded in the precincts of the grand High Court. There would be many other statues to the British who helped to shape Calcutta: "By the end of the Victorian era, the outdoor environs of the Bengal High Court, Eden Gardens, and elsewhere on the Maidan bloomed with statues and busts, transforming the 'City of Palaces' into a 'City of Sculpture'" (Groseclose 33). But, as in Delhi, many have been removed, for example, to the grounds of the Victoria Memorial . The oddest case is that of the Curzon Memorial, where the central figure (only) was replaced by a peculiarly lifeless one of Aurobindo Ghose. The respect shown to East's statue is unusual, although David Hare's statue, outside Hare School next to Presidency College, has a protective frame around it.

Bibliography

"Court Circular." The Times. 22 July 1830: 2. Times Digital Archive. Web. 22 August 2015.

Das, Soumitra. A Jaywalker's Guide to Calcutta. Mumbai: Eminence Designs, 2007.

Groseclose, Barbara S. British Sculpture and the Company Raj: Church Monuments and Public Statuary in Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay to 1858. Cranbury, NJ.: Associated University Presses, 1995.

"Obituary.— Sir Francis Chantrey, R.A." Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. Vol. 52: 99-106. Free Ebook. Web. 22 August 2015.

"Royal Academy's Exhibition." The Times. 11 May 1829: 3. Times Digital Archive. Web. 22 August 2015.

"A Sketch of the Origin, Rise, and Progress of the Hindoo College." "The Calcuttan Christian Observer. Vol. I: 14-17. Google Books (Free Ebook). Web. 22 August 2015.

Spencer, H. J. "East, Sir Edward Hyde, first baronet (1764–1847), judge in India and legal writer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Web. 22 August 2015.

"Whig Club of Cheshire and the Adjacent Counties." The Morning Chronicle. 13 October 1823; Issue 16999. 19c British Newspapers. Web. 23 August 2015.

Bibliography

Further Reading