ABSTRACT
During the nineteenth century, new responses to nature profoundly impacted the creative arts. Painters, sculptors, and poets alike drew inspiration from their immediate natural surroundings and the world beyond. This chapter examines the growing impact of the natural environment on art instruction through a case study of Lahore’s renowned Mayo School of Arts. During John Lockwood Kipling’s years as Principal (1875–1893), the institution acquired an international reputation. Traditionally, in the Punjab, the articulation of artistic potential through sculpture and modelling had been devoted towards the making of artefacts for temples and shrines. However, John Lockwood Kipling instructed artists and craftsmen to focus on the environment and produce images inspired by nature. Archival sources of the Mayo School of Arts highlight this shift in the paradigm in the production of artwork. In such objects as Masjid Wazir Khan and its surroundings, foliage plants were cultivated as a source of inspiration for craftsmen and painters. In the Mayo School of Arts course outline prepared for the students in 1875–1876, drawing and modelling of natural objects became compulsory subjects. The same pattern can also be found in woodwork and architectural patterns. The artwork of Bhai Ram Singh and Sher Muhammad, the legatees of Kipling, elucidated this shift, which this chapter puts into a historical perspective.
