Even if you know nothing else about him, you’ve probably heard the name ‘Rembrandt’ at some point in your life. You might even have seen one of his famous paintings: maybe The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, where a group of men lean over a cadaver as a doctor reveals what a hand looks like without skin, or maybe the dashing company of swordsmen featured in the sprawling canvas of The Night Watch. Rembrandt is considered one of the masters of the Dutch Golden Age of painting. At some point, in the mid-1600s, Rembrandt came across examples of Mughal art and was so inspired by their noble-looking subjects and elaborate costumes, that he began to produce work in that style.

One of the largest and oldest fishing docks in Mumbai, the Sassoon Docks, located in the South Mumbai area of Colaba, received a colourful makeover in 2017 as part of the ‘St+art Urban Art Festival’. While the art project paid homage to the Koli fishing community, it also brought attention to the family after whom the docks are named. 

In the early 1600s, Portugal, Holland and Britain, Europe’s superpowers at that time, were embroiled in a struggle to dominate India. Even while they were fighting it out, Denmark quietly managed to establish a colony in Tranquebar in 1620. Tranquebar is Danish for Tarangambadi, a seaside town about 280km from Chennai. As the little colony prospered, the Danish King Frederick IV decided to “civilise” his Indian subjects with Christian values. But this was easier said than done

In the early 1800s, some ships sailed into London’s harbour and made the British very afraid. You would think that the ships belonged to some European power intent on attacking London! You’d be wrong. These ‘hostile’ ships were Indian