Thread by @Chris_Iwanek

Today marks the 80th anniversary of German aggression on Poland which started the II World War. Link to India (and particularly Bombay and Jodhpur)? In face of the attack, some 300 Poles managed to escape to India, through Romania, Turkey and Iraq, and then by the sea, to Bombay.

Next group of Poles started to arrive to India from Southeast Asia since 1941, fleeing from the German attack. In both cases many Poles where taking shelter in Bombay where Poland had its consulate.

A third group to arrive in India where the Poles - mainly children - that managed to leave the Soviet Union (having been later deported there by Stalin) during the evacuation that started in 1941. Since 1942, there were a few thousand Poles living in India, mostly children.

But getting back to the first group of Poles that fled to India already in 1939: the group included the Polish painter, Stefan Norblin (the great-grandson of the French, Poland-settled painter, Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine) and his wife, Lena Żelichowska, a cinema star.

Seeking employment in India, Norblin painted paintings for the palace of the king of Morvi (Gujarat), portraits and some other works for the rulers of Ramgarh, and murals for the Umaid Bhavan, a palace of the kings of Jodhpur (Rajasthan).

Umaid Bhavan was completed in 1943 and then work on interiod design started. The king of Jodhpur ordered paintings from London but the ship carrying them was sunk by a German submarine. Because of this Noblin was asked to paint some of the paintings and frescoes in Umaid Bhavan.

...the Polish painter designed some of the furniture, too. Nowadays a part of the Umaid Bhavan is a hotel and if you are rich and lucky, you can stay in a room painted with Norblin's frescoes. The hotel advertises part of its suites as 'Adorned with exotic Stefan Norblin murals’.

Norblin's work was indeed 'exotic' (maybe from both perspectives) as it sought to combine European style of paintings with Hindu mythology, such as scenes from Mahabharata.
Norblin painted Art Deco and his work in India is sometimes called Indo Deco.
Example:

A group of Polish specialists renovated Norblin's frescoes in recent years:
culture.pl/en/article/red…

There is a whole Polish documentary about Norblin and his work in Jodhpur:

And a website about Nobrlin:
stefannorblin.pl

The son of Stefan Norblin and Lena Żelichowska, Andrew Norblin, was born in Bombay in 1944. After the war the family moved to the US. Norblin committed suicide in 1952, his wife died 6 years later. Their son went on to live in the US and became a musician. [end of thread]

*Japanese attack
*were taking
- sorry :(