‘Clive of India’. Army officer in the East India Company – and colonial administrator in India.
Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive of Plassey
1725 - 1774
This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.
Biographical notes
Slavery connections
Recent commentaries concerning Clive of India and his connections with slavery include:
William Dalrymple, ‘Robert Clive was a vicious asset-stripper. His statue has no place on Whitehall’, The Guardian [online], 11 June 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/11/robert-clive-statue-whitehall-british-imperial> accessed 2 August 2021.
Alex Rutherford, ‘How Robert Clive raided India for East India Company’, The Telegraph online [online], n.d., <https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/books/how-robert-clive-raided-india-for-east-india-company/cid/1678936> accessed 6 August 2021.
Adrija Roychowdhury, ‘Robert Clive: An "unstable sociopath and a racist’, hated both in India and England"‘, The Indian Express [online], updated 13 June 2020, <https://indianexpress.com/article/research/robert-clive-an-unstable-sociopath-and-a-racist-hated-both-in-india-and-england-6455033/> accessed 6 August 2021.
’Thousands call for Shrewsbury’s Clive of India statue to go' [online], BBC News [online], 9 June 2020, <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-52965220> accessed 6 August 2021.
Abolition connections
No known connections with abolition.
National Gallery painting connections
Previous owner: NG purchased in 2004: NG6600–6601.
Bibliography
H. V. Bowen, 'Clive, Robert, first Baron Clive of Plassey', in C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/5697
Checked and found
— Item on publisher's website
History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/
Checked and not found
— Item on publisher's website
J. M. Marsden, 'Clive, Robert, 1st Baron Clive of Plassey', in J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T018194
Checked and found
— Item on publisher's website
UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership, London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
Checked and not found
— Item on publisher's website
Paintings previously owned by Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive of Plassey
This is one of two paintings originally commissioned as a pair by Stanislas Augustus, King of Poland, in June or July 1772. However, concerned that the King was slow to pay, Vernet instead sold the pictures to the British officer and East India Company official Lord Clive (known as Clive of India...
This is one of a pair of seascapes, originally commissioned on behalf of the King of Poland, that the British officer and East India Company official Lord Clive (known as Clive of India) bought from Vernet in 1773.Originally known as ‘Tempête’ (Storm), it depicts a rocky shoreline buffeted by a v...