An exquisite record and exploration of some of the greatest masterpieces of Indian art by leading historian, William Dalrymple

Published to coincide with the first UK exhibition of these masterworks at The Wallace Collection, Forgotten Masters celebrates the work of a series of extraordinary Indian artists. As the East India Company extended its sway across India in the late eighteenth century, many remarkable artworks were commissioned by Company officials from Indian painters who had previously worked for the Mughals. Each had their own style, tastes and agency, and all of them worked for British patrons between the 1770s and the bloody end of the Mughal rule in 1857. Edited by writer and historian William Dalrymple, these hybrid paintings explore both the beauty of the Indian natural world and the social realities of the time in one hundred masterpieces, often of astonishing brilliance and originality. They shed light on a forgotten moment in Anglo-Indian history during which Indian artists responded to European influences while keeping intact their own artistic visions and styles. These artists represent the last phase of Indian artistic genius before the onset of the twin assaults - photography and the influence of western colonial art schools - ended an unbroken tradition of painting going back two thousand years. As these masterworks show, the greatest of these painters deserve to be remembered as among the most remarkable Indian artists of all time.

"The book accompanying the exhibition is far more than just a catalogue….this [is] the best and most handsome book on the subject currently available." - Literary Review

"He does a sensitive, subtle job of reframing the argument by focusing attention back on the artists, who fashioned a captivating hybrid style that drew on European and Mughal models." - The Daily Telegraph