Identify the correct statements about William Hodges’ painting of a hill village in Rajmahal:
A. Hodges and Cleveland visited Jangal Mahals in 1782.
B. Hodges’ ideas were inspired by the ideals of Romanticism.
C. His paintings depict the exotic and idyllic.
D. He found flat landscapes interesting.
E. He discovered beauty in roughness and irregularity.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → A, B, C, E only
A. Hodges and Cleveland visited Jangal Mahals in 1782. Correct. On the invitation of Augustus Cleveland, the Collector of Bhagalpur, Hodges accompanied him to the Jangal Mahals in 1782 and painted a set of aquatints.
B. Hodges’ ideas were inspired by the ideals of Romanticism. Correct. Like other artists in search of the picturesque, he was inspired by the ideals of Romanticism, a tradition of thought that celebrated nature.
C. His paintings depict the exotic and idyllic. Correct. A landscape that colonial officials found dangerous and wild appears in his paintings as exotic and idyllic.
D. He found flat landscapes interesting. Incorrect. Hodges found flat landscapes monotonous, that is, dull, and looked instead for roughness and variety in the Rajmahal hills.
E. He discovered beauty in roughness and irregularity. Correct. He discovered beauty in roughness, irregularity and variety.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.1 In the hills of Rajmahal … William Hodges was a British artist who accompanied Captain Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific (1772-75), and then came to India. In 1781 he became a friend of Augustus Cleveland, the Collector of Bhagalpur. On the invitation of Cleveland, Hodges accompanied him to the Jangal Mahals in 1782, and painted a set of aquatints. Like many other British painters of the time, Hodges searched for the picturesque. Artists in search of the picturesque were inspired by the ideals of Romanticism, a tradition of thought that celebrated nature and admired its magnificence and power. Romantics felt that to commune with nature the artist had to represent nature as an idyll, uncorrupted by modern civilisation, discover unknown landscapes, and appreciate the sublime play of light and shade. It is in search of this unknown that Hodges went to the Rajmahal hills. He found flat landscapes monotonous, and discovered beauty in roughness, irregularity and variety. A landscape that colonial officials found dangerous and wild, peopled by turbulent tribes, appears in the paintings of Hodges as exotic and idyllic.”
Fig. 9.8 A view of a hill village in Rajmahal, painted by William Hodges, 1782 |
