List of Illustrations  ix

Acknowledgments  xiii

Introduction  1

1. Colonizing the Exotic: Indian and Colonial Art in London  19

2. The Mirroring of Mirrors: Nostalgia, Sovereignty, and Unhomely Images in Calcutta  63

3. Mimicking Kingship: Sovereign Genealogies, Vernacular Landscape, and the Work of William Hodges  105

4. Art and Gift in India: Mimesis and Inalienability  151

5. Sacrifice and the Double: Physiognomy, Divination, and Ethnographic Art in India  195

Conclusion  229

Notes  247

Works Cited  297

Index  323

"This is a genuinely exciting contribution to visual culture studies and postcolonial art history, offering a rich and wide-ranging account of mimesis in various imperial and South Asian representational exchanges over the crucial period from the establishment of the British East India Company to the Uprising. Richly informed by recent philosophy, contemporary art and art theory, and anthropology, among other fields, this book bristles with ambition and provocative ideas."—Nicholas Thomas, coauthor of Art in Oceania: A New History

"Mimesis across Empires presents a strikingly innovative and challenging perspective on British art's relationship to empire and the imperial consciousness, as well as on the role of art and artists in British India. Impressively researched and theoretically well informed, this book considers European and Indian modes of visuality alongside each other in order to reframe the relationship between colonizer and colonized."—Geoff Quilley, author of Empire to Nation: Art, History and the Visualization of Maritime Britain, 1768–1829

"Exploding expectations about 'exchange' and 'co-histories,' Natasha Eaton offers a radical and brilliant analysis that perfectly describes the struggle over mimesis in colonial India. 'Alter-aware' imagery and practices are animated in complex dances of intimacy and hostility. A hugely important work."—Christopher Pinney, coeditor of Photography's Other Histories

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