The Government College of Fine Arts on Poonamallee High Road in Egmore began in 1850 as a private art school run by an East India Company surgeon, Dr Alexander Hunter. Taken over by the government in 1855, it is one of the oldest art schools in India and the place where the Madras Art Movement grew in the 1960s to 1980s. It now teaches four-year BFA and two-year MFA courses in painting, sculpture and visual communication design.
Its 175 years trace the city’s whole art history, from stained glass and wrought iron made for colonial buildings to the modernists who founded Cholamandal. Here is that story in brief, and what the college offers today.
Hunter’s school, 1850
Alexander Hunter, born in 1816, was a surgeon in the Madras Presidency and a self-taught painter, notes Outlook. He started classes in pottery and industrial crafts, paid for them himself at first, and moved the school in 1850 to the orphan asylums in Black Town, today’s George Town, writes Madras Musings. Branch classes opened in Vepery and at the Military Male Orphan Asylum.
The government took the school over in March 1855, and Hunter stayed on to run it. By the time he retired in 1873 it had taught more than 4,200 students. Its workshops produced utensils, furniture, stained glass, ornamental ironwork and wood carving, and some of that work still survives on Chennai buildings, Outlook adds.
Key dates
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1850 | Dr Alexander Hunter’s school of art begins in Madras |
| 1855 | Government takes over the school |
| 1884 | E.B. Havell appointed its first full-time Superintendent |
| 1922 | D.P. Roy Chowdhury becomes the first Indian principal |
| 1941 | K.C.S. Paniker joins the teaching staff |
| 1991 | College comes under the state Department of Art and Culture |
| 1997 | Museum of Contemporary Art set up on campus |
| 2013 | Affiliated to the state Music and Fine Arts University |
Dates are from Madras Musings and the MAP Academy encyclopedia.
Havell, Chisholm and the colonial years
Robert Fellowes Chisholm, the architect behind Senate House and other Indo-Saracenic landmarks, was linked to the school from around 1873, and its campus served as his workshop for Senate House interiors, Madras Musings notes. Ernest Binfield Havell, who later became a leading champion of Indian art in Calcutta, ran the school from 1884 and expanded training in woodcarving, carpentry and metalwork.
Roy Chowdhury, Paniker and the Madras Art Movement
The big turn came in 1922, when Debi Prasad Roy Chowdhury, a student of Abanindranath Tagore, became the first Indian principal. He brought in painting and sculpture as core subjects. K.C.S. Paniker joined in 1941 and in 1944 founded the Progressive Painters’ Association so that graduates could keep working together.
Under Paniker, who later became principal, the college became the hub of what is now called the Madras Art Movement, a modernist school drawing on Indian line, folk forms and script. A batik project with students in 1963-64 helped raise money and laid the ground for the Cholamandal Artists’ Village at Injambakkam, founded in 1966, the MAP Academy notes. Alumni named by Madras Musings include K.M. Adimoolam, K.M. Gopal and S. Dhanapal.
The college today
The Department of Art and Culture lists these points about the programmes:
- Courses: BFA (four years, eight semesters) and MFA (two years, four semesters).
- Specialisations: painting, sculpture and visual communication design.
- Support: BFA students get art materials worth Rs 2,000 each academic year; government scholarships are available for BC, MBC, Adi Dravidar and tribal students; ten final-year BFA and two MFA students get scholarships sponsored by the Tamil Nadu Ovia Nunkalai Kuzhu.
- Facilities: a library of Indian and foreign art publications and a computer lab for animation and app design work.
- Tours and shows: study tours for senior BFA students and an annual exhibition with cash prizes.
Admission notifications are issued by the department each year. Check its website or call the college for the application window, eligibility and fees, which the course page does not list.
Visiting the campus
The four-acre campus has old buildings set among trees and is a working college, so casual visitors should check at the gate. The annual student exhibition and the Museum of Contemporary Art, when open, are the easiest ways for the public to see work by students and past masters.
Quick answers
When was the Government College of Fine Arts Chennai founded?
In 1850, by Dr Alexander Hunter. The government took it over in 1855.
What courses does it offer?
BFA and MFA in painting, sculpture and visual communication design.
Who was its first Indian principal?
D.P. Roy Chowdhury, from 1922.
What is the Madras Art Movement?
A modernist movement centred on the college from the 1960s to 1980s, led by K.C.S. Paniker and his students.
Information checked against official sources on 18 October 2026. Fees, dates and rules can change; confirm on the linked official pages before acting.
