Tag Archives: osborne house

A palace by the sea

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IN OCTOBER 2022, we visited the Isle of Wight and went around Osborne House, which Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert had constructed as a holiday home near the seaside on the north coast of the island. A largely unattractive Victorian pile, its saving grace is the Durbar Hall, which is a near perfect example of the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture that can be found in many places in India. Recently (in February 2023), we visited another royal summer palace located close to the sea. It is the Vijaya Vilas Palace close to Mandvi in the former Kingdom of Kutch, now a part of the Indian State of Gujarat.

The Vijaya Vilas was completed in 1927. It was built by Kutch’s ruler Maharao Kengarji III as a summer resort for his son and heir, the Yuvraj Shri Jayarajii.

Architecturally, it resembles older Rajput palaces, and is a fine example of the Indo-Saracenic style. It and its various oriental decorative and structural features were made by craftsmen from Bengal, Jaipur and other places in Rajasthan, Saurashtra, and Kutch. The predominant material used is sandstone , of which there is no shortage in Kutch. It seems that the palace suffered little damage during the 2001 earthquake, which badly affected the Maharao’s palaces in nearby Bhuj (the capital of Kutch).

Inside the palace there are rooms with furniture that would not look out of place in many English stately homes. There are many framed photographs of the royal family, their guests, and the many wild animals that were shot. One of these was a leopard that was shot by someone inside the palace. One of the window panes has a bullet hole that is said to have been made by the bullet that killed the creature. There are also photographs that record the many times that scenes in Bollywood movies were shot in the Palace.

One photograph shows the US General Dwight Eisenhower seated in a jeep. This picture was taken in Europe during WW2. I have yet to discover what, if any, connection existed between Eisenhower and the royal family of Kutch.

Visitors can visit the rooms on the ground floor, and can ascend to the roof from which there are superb views of the sea and the flat countryside around the palace. The first floor, which is private, is the residence of members of the former royal family.

Although not as old as it looks, Vijaya Vilas, is a superb example of the kind of palace typical of those older ones that can be seen in Rajasthan. To my taste, Vijaya Vilas is a much more lovely and harmonious edifice than Victoria and Albert’s seaside home on the Isle of Wight.

Faces of India for Queen Victoria

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THE CORRIDORS LEADING to the spectacular Durbar Room in Osborne House on the Isle of Wight are lined with portraits of people born in pre-independence India, either painted or photographed during the 19th century. Most of these images depict members of the Indian aristocracy (e.g., rulers of Princely States). A few depict less exalted persons, such as craftsmen and the designer of the Durbar Room.

Maharajah Duleep Singh (1838-1893), who surrendered the Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria, is portrayed in a few pictures, notably one by the famous German artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873). Many other paintings were created by the Austrian painter Rudolf Swoboda (1859-1914). Queen Victoria liked his painting style and commissioned him to create more than 40 portraits of Indian people. In 1886, the queen paid for him to travel to India, and gave him £300 in travelling expenses. Her instructions to the young artist were:

“The Sketches Her Majesty wishes to have – are of the various types of the different nationalities. They should consist of heads of the same size as those already done for The Queen, and also small full lengths, as well as sketches of landscapes, buildings, and other scenes. Her Majesty does not want any large pictures done at first, but thinks that perhaps you could bring away material for making them should they eventually be wished for.” (www.rct.uk/collection/403755/gulzar).

Many of these can be seen hanging in Osborne House. Amongst his many Indian portraits, there is at least one painted not in India but in England. Queen Victoria had several servants, who were born in British India and the Princely States associated with it. The best known of these ‘imported’ servants was her favourite Mohammed Abdul Karim (1863-1909), her ‘munshi’ (teacher), who helped her study Hindustani, which she learned to write competently in the Urdu script. Amongst Swoboda’s paintings of Indians hanging in Osborne House, there is one of a non-Indian, a lady from Cyprus, and another, a Cape Malay woman from  Cape Town (South Africa). Why they are there, I have not yet found out, but maybe Swoboda spotted them at the Colonial Exhibition held in London in 1886.

Not all the portraits of Indians are painted. Some of them are hand-coloured photographs. A few of these photos are signed by their creators, one of which was the photographic studio of Gobind Ram and Oodey Ram in Jaipur. Along with a studio in Calcutta the Ram brothers were pioneers in photography in 19th century India. One source (www.indiatoday.in/lifestyle/whats-hot/story/tryst-with-colonial-india-205124-2014-08-22) stated:

“Apparently, studio photography was practised by many Maharajas as a means of leisure, mostly using their courtesans as subjects. The Ravi Varma Studios of Calcutta and Gobind Ram-Oodey Ram Studio in Jaipur are just two examples.”

As can be seen at Osborne, these photographers also made portraits of the maharajahs and their families.

Although Queen Victoria loved Osborne House, I cannot see its appeal apart from the wonderful Durbar Room. For me, seeing this lavishly decorated hall and the collection portraits of the Indian people are the main delights of this otherwise rather gloomy residence.

Bringing India to Queen Victoria in England

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OSBORNE HOUSE ON the Isle of Wight was one of Queen Victoria’s favourite residences. Apart from one room within it, I was not overly impressed by the place. That room, which alone is a very good reason to visit Osborne, is the ornate Durbar Room. Entering this vast hall is like stepping inside an exuberantly decorated Maharajah’s palace somewhere in India. It is a superb example of the Indo-Saracenic style, which is according to one definition (on Wikipedia) was:

“… a revivalist architectural style mostly used by British architects in India in the later 19th century, especially in public and government buildings in the British Raj, and the palaces of rulers of the princely states. It drew stylistic and decorative elements from native Indo-Islamic architecture, especially Mughal architecture, which the British regarded as the classic Indian style, and, less often, from Hindu temple architecture.”

The Durbar Room was built not in India but in the country that ruled it at the time. It was designed not by a British architect but by a man from British India – Ram Singh (1858-1916), who was born in Rasulpur in the Punjab (now a village in Pakistan). His skills were recognised at a young age when he was seen working in a woodcarver’s shop in Amritsar. The man who spotted his talent was Rudyard Kipling’s father, the art teacher Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911). At the time, Lockwood was the first principal of the Mayo School of Industrial Arts, Lahore (established in 1875). He enrolled Ram as a student. Ram Singh was a successful student and soon became assistant drawing master at the school and Lockwood’s protégé. The two men collaborated in many important projects including designing Aitchison College in Lahore, the Mayo School in Lahore, and both the Indian Passage and ballroom at Bagshot Park (near Windsor). The work he had done in England led to him and Lockwood Kipling being given the commission to design the Durbar Room at Osborne.

The Durbar Room was designed to accommodate large ceremonial occasions and to reflect Queen Victoria’s exalted position as Empress of India, a role created by the British Parliament in 1876. This room, completed in 1891 as an extension of Osborne House, with its riotous array of mainly Mughal-style plasterwork decorations might have served yet another purpose. By the time it was completed, Victoria had never visited India, and at the age of over 70 years was unlikely to do so (and never did). In a way, the Durbar Room brought India to Victoria, and judging by its appearance, did so very well.