17th century saw a new organized and consistent movement of Europeans into the shores of India. Dutch, British, French and Portuguese companies increasingly started exerting pressures in all attempt to gain maximum control over trading privileges in India. It all started as an economic tussle to reap rich harvest in the field of trade and commerce between these European companies which gradually turned into war for the supremacy and rule of the occupier nation, in which the British East India Company came out clear winner in the mid-18th century. The British East India Company, as it is known, with the blessings of the British monarch, became the imperial overlords of India, began assuming economic, political and territorial control. As a result, irreversible changes in the socio- political landscape of India took place, transforming the country into the colony of the new colonizers.

Numerous artists of European origins arrived, started assuming their primary job side by side, with those already settled Company employees and their supporting staff. Records show, around 30 British portrait painters who were trained in Britain in technics to do oil paintings and 28 miniature artists travelled to India between 1770 and 1825 in search of commissions. Amongst the earliest European artists who visited India were John Zoffany, William Hodges, Tilly Kettle, William and Thomas Daniell, Emily Eden and several other artists of prominence. From around 1760 till mid-19th century, these itinerant artist-travelers extensively toured India working for the local Indian patrons, in the process created paintings and prints of numerous monuments, memorials, landscapes as well as portraits of the elites. Artists worked in the medium of oil paint on canvas or paper utilizing the skill they had acquired during their studies in western techniques which were primarily based on academic realism emphasizing on linear perspective. These European artists recorded scenes from their social surroundings both in prints and paintings by exploring vast landscapes, numerous historical edifices and monuments, also studying details about many communities and social groups which inhabited the land. Once filtered through the ‘orientalist’ lens, these works depicted India as an exotic as well as a land of mystery. Exquisite depiction of the ancient ghats of Benaras, dancing girls in royal courts, colorful costumes of various castes, portraits of local ruling elites, their courts and courtiers, delineation of various native occupations and the local flora and fauna confirms the idea.