The Flemish artist Francois Balthazar Solvyns (1760-1824) is little known, but his collection of etchings of the Hindus constructs a rich and compelling portrait of India two hundred years ago. These prints, depiciting the people of bengal in their occupations, festivals, and daily life, and the accompanying descriptive text, have rarely been referred to by historians of India. Solvyns was born in Antwerp in 1760, of a prominent merchant family, and has pursued a career as a marine painter until political unrest in Europe and his own insecure position led him to seek his fortune in India. Following his arrival in Calcutta in 1971, he worked as something of a journeyman artist, but in 1794, Solvyns announced his plan for A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings: Descriptive of the Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos. The collection was published in Calcutta in a few copies in 1796, and then in greater numbers in 1799. Divided into twelve parts, the first section, with 66 prints, depicts the Hindoo Castes, with their professions. Following sections portray servants, costumes, means of transportation (carts, palanquins, and boats), modes of smoking, fakirs, musical instruments, and festivals. The project proved a financial failure. The etchings, by contemporary European standards, were rather crudely done, and they did not appeal to the vogue of the picturesque - that quest for wild, unkempt beauty - that dominated the market for prints. Solvyn's life is itself fascinating, and his portrayal of India constitutes an unrivalled visual account of the people of bengal in the late eighteenth century. Contents: Part-I: Introduction; From Antwerp to Calcutta: A Flemish Artist in India/ Return to Europe: Les Hindous/ Balthazar Solvyns, Artist and Orientalist/ Les Hindous: Preliminary Discourse. Part-II: A Portrait of the Hindus: Solvyns's Calcutta/ Castes and Occupations/ Dresses of Hindu Men and of Hindu Women/ Servants of the European Household in Calcutta/ Fakirs and Religious Mendicants/ Musical Instruments/ Festivals and Ceremonies/ Sati/ Modes of Smoking/ Modes of Conveyance/ Boats of Bengal/ Natural History: Plants and Animals/ Indian Heads.