Image: JAMSETJI N. TATA

Description: (1839-1904 A.D.), Edwin Arthur Ward (1860-1933 A.D.), Oil on canvas Sir D. J. Tata Collection Painting: 159.4 x 135.2 cms. (Acc. No. 33.72). Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the well-known industrial House of Tatas, was born to a priestly Parsi family in 1839. He was married at the age of five to Heerabai Cursetji Daboo. When he was thirteen he came to Bombay and a year later, he joined the Elphinstone Institute (just across from this Museum.) In the course of his illustrious career Jamsetji established the Central India Spinning, Weaving and Manufacturing Co. in 1874. It was later named Empress Mills. He laid foundation for the Iron and Steel Industry at Jamshedpur. He proposed the use of hydraulic energy, a vision carried forward by his son Dorab who completed the Tata Hydro-Electric upply Co. in 1920. Jamsetji Tata also gave the city its first grand hotel, the Taj, in1903. In this portrait, Jamsetji is shown wearing a Parsi prayer cap and woven grey embroidered robe. He sits at ease in a cane chair. Bright light with deep shadows create a dramatic effect. Jamsetji Tata was of 50 years old when he sat for this portrait by Edwin Ward. Edwin Ward was a British painter, born in Nottinghamshire. He studied at the Nottinghamshire School of Art and came to London at the age of nineteen. His period of greatest creativity was from 1883-1927 A.D. Among his clients were Lord Randolph Churchill and Sir Henry Irving. Edwin Ward was elected to the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1891 and some of his works can be viewed at the Castle Museum in Nottingham.
Usage Terms: Public domain