1. Sir Charles D'Oyly, 7th Baronet, was a British public official and painter from Dacca.
16 Facts About Charles D'Oyly
1. 2.
Charles D'Oyly was a member of the Bengal Civil Service based in Calcutta, Dacca and Patna from 1797 to 1838.
3.
Charles D'Oyly was notable for being the founder and president of an amateur arts society in Patna called the Behar School of Athens.
4.
Charles D'Oyly was the son of Sir John-Hadley D'Oyly, 6th Baronet and Diana Rochfort.
5.
Charles D'Oyly's father was the East India Company's resident at the Court of Nawab Babar Ali of Murshidabad.
6.
In 1815 or 1817, Charles D'Oyly married Elizabeth Jane Ross, daughter of Major Thomas Ross.
7.
Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Marquess of Hastings, the Governor-General, was very taken with Charles D'Oyly, who served as the Governor's aide-de-camp whenever he was in Calcutta.
8.
From 1821 to 1831, Charles D'Oyly was Opium Agent of Bihar and Commercial Resident of Patna; this was one of his most productive periods, and he produced numerous paintings and sketches.
9.
Between 1832 and 1833, Charles D'Oyly took leave at the Cape of Good Hope, returning to Calcutta to become the Senior Member of the Board of Customs, Salt, Opium and of the Marine.
10.
Charles D'Oyly sketched incessantly and took an active interest in the arts generally, finding these leisure pursuits to be an agreeable way to relieve the boredom associated with colonial life.
11.
Charles D'Oyly produced landscapes, scenes of Indian life, portraits, and caricatures, primarily in watercolour, and wrote satirical verse.
12.
Unlike other artists of the period, Charles D'Oyly was not afraid to depict drunkenness and debauchery in his illustrations.
13.
Charles D'Oyly's published work, which was invariably heavily illustrated, encompassed a variety of subject matter, from natural history to social satire, and was occasionally written in verse.
14.
In Patna, Charles D'Oyly was at the centre of a flourishing artistic circle made up of both British and Indian artists.
15.
Charles D'Oyly's 1828 work Tom Raw, the Griffin is an illustrated satirical novella in verse which relates the adventures of a cadet in the East India Company.
16.
Charles D'Oyly's publications were sold in London where they were popular amongst those with an interest in the Orient.