A collector gave Tate Britain 50 paintings and took no tax benefit

Charles Greig spent 45 years collecting paintings by artists who worked in India. They hung in his late 17th-century house in west London. Now 50 of them belong to Tate Britain, with no tax benefit to the man who gave them.

Apollo reports that Greig saw himself as a steward, and thought the public should see a collection built on so much study. In his words, "I believe that a gift should be a gift". Tate's release says the gift came outright and without tax incentives.

What is in the gift

The gift covers oil paintings, watercolours and miniatures. Artists named include Johan Zoffany, William Hodges, and Thomas and William Daniell. Indian artists are there too, among them Sita Ram and Ghulam Ali Khan.

Sita Ram's three watercolours are the museum's first Company paintings (works made by Indian artists for British patrons). Lord Hastings, governor-general of Bengal, hired Sita Ram. The artist recorded his journey from Calcutta to the Punjab in 1814 and 1815.

Ghulam Ali Khan was court painter to the Mughal emperors. He later worked for East India Company officers. The gift has his panorama of the Diwan-i-Am in Delhi's Red Fort, painted about 1806.

The Zoffany portrait

Johan Zoffany painted Prince Jawan Bakht in 1784. The work was done on the evening Zoffany reached Lucknow, Apollo says. Bakht was heir apparent to the Mughal empire. Greig calls it "arguably the most important portrait of an Indian by a European artist that exists".

Tate says it will be one of only three portraits of individual Indian sitters by Zoffany in UK public collections. William Hodges is in the gift too, and Greig said of him, "Hodges was really trying to understand India".

Rudolf Swoboda's Sepoy, dated about 1886, was painted for Queen Victoria. It is the first work by Swoboda to enter a British museum collection.

Why keep them in Britain

Greig also wanted to keep such paintings in Britain, because more of them were going abroad, mostly to India. He said, "It seemed to me essential that one was saving something".

My own stewardship so far stretches only to one houseplant, and it is struggling.

What happens next

The public will have a first chance to see the works in 2028, in a free display at Tate Britain. Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain, thanks Greig for the gift.

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