Which of the following is True for the painting of the title "Relief of Lucknow".
(A) British Heroes stand on the ground that is well-lit in the centre.
(B) At the centre of the canvas are English women and children huddled in a circle.
(C) The dead and injured in foreground are testimony to the suffering.
(D) In the background, British rescue forces arrive as saviours.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A), (C) only
“Relief of Lucknow”, painted by Thomas Jones Barker in 1859, celebrates the moment when Colin Campbell entered Lucknow and rescued the besieged British garrison.
(A) British Heroes stand on the ground that is well-lit in the centre. Correct. At the centre of the canvas are the British heroes – Campbell, Outram and Havelock – and the heroes stand on a ground that is well lit.
(B) At the centre of the canvas are English women and children huddled in a circle. Incorrect. The centre of Barker’s canvas holds the British heroes. English women and children huddled in a circle are seen in another painting, Joseph Noel Paton’s “In Memoriam”.
(C) The dead and injured in foreground are testimony to the suffering. Correct. The dead and injured in the foreground are testimony to the suffering during the siege, while the triumphant horses in the middle ground show that British power had been re-established.
(D) In the background, British rescue forces arrive as saviours. Incorrect. In Barker’s painting the background holds the damaged Residency. British rescue forces arriving as saviours in the background are seen in “In Memoriam”.
NCERT (2026-27): “5.1 Celebrating the saviours … Barker’s painting celebrates the moment of Campbell’s entry. At the centre of the canvas are the British heroes – Campbell, Outram and Havelock. The gestures of the hands of those around lead the spectator’s eyes towards the centre. The heroes stand on a ground that is well lit, with shadows in the foreground and the damaged Residency in the background. The dead and injured in the foreground are testimony to the suffering during the siege, while the triumphant figures of horses in the middle ground emphasise the fact that British power and control had been re-established.… 5.2 English women and the honour of Britain … Artists expressed as well as shaped these sentiments through their visual representations of trauma and suffering. ‘In Memoriam’ (Fig. 10.11) was painted by Joseph Noel Paton two years after the mutiny. You can see English women and children huddled in a circle, looking helpless and innocent, seemingly waiting for the inevitable – dishonour, violence and death. ‘In Memoriam’ does not show gory violence; it only suggests it. It stirs up the spectator’s imagination, and seeks to provoke anger and fury. It represents the rebels as violent and brutish, even though they remain invisible in the picture. In the background you can see the British rescue forces arriving as saviours.”
Fig. 10.10 “Relief of Lucknow”, painted by Thomas Jones Barker, 1859 |
