Retribution
by Edward Armitage
The lurid stories in the press were his inspiration
Edward Armitage was one of the main exponents of
public art in Britain and was never dependant on the open market. He was born
in Yorkshire in 1817 into a family of wealthy industrialist and was therefore able
to train in Paris. He returned to London in 1843, having developed the main
principles of French art which he followed throughout the rest of his life. One
of his early works was his 1847 Battle of Meanee, bought by Victoria, one of
many paintings from Britain’s colonial wars. Armitage was in England when the
Indian Rebellion broke out in 1857 and he followed the newspaper accounts of
the main sieges and the movements of the British army in trying to relieve
Cawnpore, Lucknow and Delhi. The lurid stories found in the press about
atrocities committed by Indians produced a lust for revenge amongst readers,
especially the events at the Bibighar where over 100 women and children were butchered
and then thrown down a well. The evidence about large numbers of Indian
remaining loyal to the crown were ignored as were the acts of revenge
perpetrated by the British army.
For his painting on what he had read about Armitage decided to paint
an allegory of revenge, possibly getting his idea from John Tenniel’s cartoon
in Punch which showed a lion attacking a tiger to prevent it attacking a
woman and child. Armitage in preparation produced a large cartoon in black and
white chalk, but using a depiction of Britannia instead of the lion. The lion
is held motionless as it is about to pierce a tiger, representing India. At the
feet of Britannia, representing the regiments of soldiers who have been sent to
India to bring order (and exact revenge) is a
woman with her child, prostrate on the floor, symbolic of the massacre
at Cawnpore. In the background is a minaret and dome representing India. The
storm and dark background represents the revenge and violence to come from the
British army whilst the torn book and child’s toy lying on the ground represent
an attack on the civilisation being brought to India by the British. The
massacre at Cawnpore was represented in the British press as the act of a
thankless people and legitimised this act of vengeance. The British response
was brutal with British soldiers ransacking villages and hanging anyone thought
to have been a former sepoy.