Frans Balthazar Solvyns

Frans Balthazar Solvyns or François Balt(h)azar(d)[1][2][3] (6 July 1760 – 10 October 1824) was a Flemish marine painter, printmaker and ethnographer.

The government's appreciation was also reflected in his appointment - at the age of sixteen - as captain of Fort Lillo on the left bank of the river Scheldt in Antwerp.

[3][4] The governor general commissioned him to make a painting of the city and port of Antwerp depicting the occasion on which the Imperial banner had been hoisted on the river Scheldt.

[8] Other founders included Balthasar Paul Ommeganck, Pieter Faes, Miss Herry, Jan Josef Horemans the Younger, Ferdinand Verhoeven, Hendrik Aarnout Myin, Hendrik Frans de Cort, Mattheus Ignatius van Bree, Maria Jacoba Ommeganck, Marten Waefelaerts and many others.

Inspired by the British Orientalist and Sanskrit scholar Sir William Jones who had founded the Asiatic Society, he devised in 1794 the scheme to create a series of etchings that depict the everyday life of the inhabitants of the subcontinent.

His etchings covered the castes and their professions, costumes, means of transportation, modes of smoking, fakirs, musical instruments, and festivals.

[6] Solvyns married the wealthy Mary Anne Greenwood, daughter of an English family residing in Ghent.

[10] This publication was again a commercial failure possibly as a result of the unrest caused by the Napoleonic wars, its high cost of production and the lack of interest among the local populace.

[6] The publication was to become an influential model for the so-called 'Company style' of Indian painting in the 19th century with its drawings of 'occupations' for the British serving in India.