Johann Zoffany, 'Portrait of Prince Jawan Bakht (also known as Jahandar Shah)' 1784. Presented by Charles Andrew Greig 2026
Tate has received an outstanding collection of 50 artworks by artists who lived and worked in India during the 18th and 19th centuries. Gifted outright and without the use of tax incentives, this generous donation by Charles Greig, a leading art historian and scholar of British India, is an entirely philanthropic act, made with the desire to ensure these masterworks can be accessed and enjoyed by the nation. This remarkable collection will enable Tate to tell rich new stories about the art, people and culture of India during the period of profound cultural , social and political change brought about by Brit ish colonialism in South Asia.
Built with great care over four decades, Greig’s collection comprises oil paintings, watercolours and miniatures, which reveal the networks of artists and patrons that shaped the visual culture of 18th and 19th century South Asia. The collection includes works by important Indian artists such as Sita Ram and Ghulam Ali Khan, who capitalised on the new market for their work among British East India Company officials . It also includes works by leading European artists such as Johan Zoffany and Rudolf Swoboda who established successful careers in the region, as well as British landscapists like William Hodges, Thomas Daniell and William Daniell . Together, these artworks reflect the complex exchanges, relationships and power dynamics of India and Britain’s shared history throughout these years.
Key highlights include Johan Zoffany’s 1784 oil painting Portrait of Prince Jawan Bakht (also known as Jahandar Shah), which will become one of only three portraits of individual Indian sitters by Zoffany to be held in UK public collections. Having already found fame in Britain, Zoffany travelled to India in 1783. His work captures a period of cross-cultural encounter as the British East India Company increased its stronghold in the region. Rudolph Swoboda’s Sepoy in HH Maharaja Srinagar's Indian Regiment, 23 Years Old, c.1886, is the first work by the artist to enter a British museum collection. Painted for Queen Victoria and exhibited at the Empire of India Exhibition in London in 1895, the portrait offers a rare glimpse of society under British rule. Three watercolours by Sita Ram are a lso among the collection’s highlights. A prominent Indian artist of the late Mughal period, Sita Ram worked for British patrons, developing a new style that drew upon long-established Indian art traditions as well as European visual languages . These artworks will introduce this genre – often referred to as ‘Company paintings’ – to Tate’s collection for the first time, highlighting the vital contribution of Indian artists to the story of British art.
The public will have their first opportunity to see the works in 2028 , when a dedicated free display will open at Tate Britain.
Alex Farquharson , Director, Tate Britain said:
“As home to the world’s greatest collection of British art, Tate is always looking to tell new and different stories about Britain’s role in international art history. This exceptional gift will significantly strengthen our holdings of art produced in the British Empire and broaden the range of people and histories represented in the national collection. The depth of scholarship and coherence that characterise this collection are a testament to Charles Greig’s expertise and his long-term commitment to bring these works together and understand them in their wider contexts. We are enormously grateful to him for creating such a transformative collection of museum-quality artworks, and for enabling us to share it with the public now and into the future."
Charles Greig said:
"This collection of Anglo-Indian paintings and Company paintings was put together over 45 years. Throughout that time my focus was exploring the deep and intricate relationship between Britain and the Indian subcontinent through the entwined complexities of the artistic encounter. Most of the works were made in the vanished world before photography and they provide us with a visual record of our rich shared history from about 1770. Assembling this collection has been my life’s primary passion, but at no stage did I ever see myself as other than a temporary steward. Because these works encompass a unique cross-cultural discourse, it seems to me vital that they are preserved intact to be enjoyed and studied by all mankind. A collection built on a life of study deserves to be universally accessible and I am profoundly happy to see these works find a permanent home at Tate.”
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About Charles Greig
Charles Greig (b. 1955, London) is an art historian, independent art consultant and scholar specialising in paintings of the Indian subcontinent by 18th and 19th century European and Company School artists. Greig graduated from the University of Exeter in 1976 and has worked extensively across the UK and India. In the early 1990s, he served as Art Historical Adviser to the Calcutta Tercentenary Trust, where he surveyed and catalogued the collection of the Victoria Memorial, Calcutta. For more than a decade he has served on the
Executive Committee of the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA), including five years as Treasurer, and has advised on the restoration and preservation of historic cemeteries across the subcontinent.
His scholarly work has contributed to a number of major publications, including William Hodges R.A. 1744–1797: The Art of Exploration (Yale University Press, 2004), ‘Portraits of Princely India, 1700 –1947’ (Marg, Vol. 59, 2008), Johan Zoffany R.A.: Society Observed(Yale University Press, 2012), and The Estate of Major General Claude Martin at Lucknow: An Indian Inventory (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Greig has also served as an expert adviser to the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest and has prepared expert reports for the Acceptance in Lieu Panel of Arts Council England. He acts as an art-historical adviser to several major private British and Indian art collections and most recently, Greig appeared as an expert on BBC One's Fake or Fortune? Series 14, in theepisode A Passage to India, broadcast on 23 July 2026.
About Tate
Tate celebrates the best of British art from 1500 to today and the world’s greatest modern and contemporary art. Every year it welcomes millions of people to its four galleries – Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives – to enjoy unforgettable exhibitions, spectacular commissions and unique events. At the heart of these activities is a growing collection of over 70,000 works of art, ranging from paintings and sculptures to installations and performances. Tate cares for this collection on behalf of the public and, as one of the world’s biggest lenders of art, shares it with museums and galleries throughout the UK and across the globe. For more information, please visit tate.org.uk