A Study of The Native Body Portrayed in the British Colonial Paintings (1800-1900)

One of the noticeable features of the paintings done by European painters, during the British colonial period is that the native body and the Caucasian body have been designed to bring about two different attitudes. The Caucasians have been painted in the centrepoint with a display of dominance and the native bodies are portrayed as subordinates or as ready to follow the orders of their rulers. This paper tries to shed an insight as to how the European painters of the colonial periods have portrayed the native body and the colonial ideology. British colonial paintings portraying the natives completed during 1800-1900 have been chosen as samples for this study research. Furthermore, the post-colonial theoretical approach has been extensively used in this study. The Post-colonialdiscourse can be identified as a novel approach to study further the aspects missed out and forgotten by the natives of the colonial era. Moreover, the post-structural theoretical approach and semiotics are important to understand the colonial aims and the symbols, seen in the portrayal of the native body in the colonial paintings. Some apparent factors such as localisation, and background composition are taken into consideration. The study reveals that most of the paintings of the native body has been constructed based on euro- centrism. Highlighting the nudity of the native body, and portraying their powerlessness and role as a service provider to the other are important factors. Hence, the study reveals that the colonial British paintings of the native body have been portrayed on the basis of favouritism.