Originally born in Capri in 1939, Horace Van Ruith was a prolific artist who specialized in landscapes, portraits and genre scenes in an academic style After spending his formative years working in Italy, he decided to move to England where he continued his artistic practice His visit to India in the 1880’s had a profound impact on his artistic sensibilities and laid the foundations of his critically-acclaimed series of Oriental paintings 

Van Ruith’s paintings usually capture his subjects engaged in their day-to-day activities, from leisure and trade to time with family The chaos and the charm of the local people’s daily life captivated him There is an enigmatic and poetic beauty in his canvas that deeply reflects the cultural innuendos of India in the late 19th century The raw beauty of simplistic pleasures coupled with a compositional harmony, give his paintings a very tangible presence 

He displayed a number of his Oriental works from India upon his return to London in 1886 that were highly praised and won him the patronage of the English royalty  He also participated in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition opened by Queen Victoria where her son, Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, wrote of van Ruith in a letter to the Queen, stating that ‘no man understands the peculiar characteristics of Indian life better than he does and he is a very clever artist’

Even though his name and his work became obscure after his death in 1923, they have been making a comeback and gaining their long-due recognition in recent years