Frans-Balthasar Solvyns (1760 - 1824)

Frans-Balthasar Solvyns

Frans Balthasar Solvyns, also known as François-Baltazard, was a Flemish painter, printmaker and ethnographer.

Solvyns trained in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, then in Paris at the École Royale de Paintings et Sculpture, and was a successful marine painter in Antwerp, painting harbors and ships on government commissions.

In 1791 he arrived in Calcutta and lived there for several years, working and sketching. Solviyns documented 18th-century Indian culture and environment, including the people, their daily activities, holidays, culture, festivals, and religious practices. In 1796, Solvyns published his first collection of engravings entitled A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Colored Engravings: a Description of the Manners, Customs, and Dress of the Hindus in Calcutta.