Badend meisje op de oever van de Ganges in Benares Possibly 1917

This is a sketch by Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp, titled ‘Bathing Girl on the Banks of the Ganges in Benares’. Though undated, we can place it in the early 20th century, when the artist travelled extensively in Asia. Here, Nieuwenkamp depicts a nude female figure standing by the Ganges, a river considered sacred in Hinduism. The scene seems to be the city of Varanasi, formerly known as Benares, a major religious hub in India. The choice of subject situates this work within the Orientalist tradition, a Western fascination with the ‘exotic’ East. But instead of portraying a scene of opulence, the artist chooses to portray a nude girl by the Ganges, a symbol of spiritual purification and life. To understand this work better, we can look at the travel accounts and visual culture of the time to see how India was perceived and represented. Was Nieuwenkamp interested in creating a progressive image of life in Benares? Or was he interested in something else entirely? These are some of the questions the art historian can explore.