William Spencer Bagdatopoulos

Early 20th century Ltd Etching Indian Listed Art Benares Varanasi Ganges India

1925

Born in Greece in 1888, William Spencer Bagdatopoulos (1888–1965) was a painter a commercial artist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is known for his Orientalist renditions of people and monuments in the East. Bagdatopoulos spent his childhood in the Netherlands and aged 11 entered the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Rotterdam. At the age of sixteen he travelled to what was then called the Near East, painting in Egypt and Palestine and going on to study art for another year at the Athens Academy (1906–07). He travelled and worked in Turkey, Egypt, Palestine. Returning to London in 1908 at the age of 20 he studied and started working as an artist, painting commissions for portraits, illustrations, murals, and posters for business houses, shipping companies, and the railways. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of Arts, England in 1909 and was a medalist at the National Competition of 1913 in South Kensington. The following year, he served with the British Army during World War I. In 1924, Bagdatopoulos was commissioned by the Times of India in Bombay to tour the country on their behalf. For four years, from 1924-26, he travelled to every part of India, painting images of Indian sights, such as the Golden Temple, the Gopuram at Madurai, the Taj Mahal, and Cities such as Benares and the bazaars of Darjeeling. Many of his artworks were reproduced in the Times of India annuals. He also illustrated advertisements for the magazine and travel posters for the Indian Railways Promotion Bureau. A biographical note in the Who's Who on the Pacific Coast describes him as 'Chief artist and pictorial advisor to Times of India magazine.; recognised as an authority on far and near eastern advertising.’