“Paynter had found in Italy that the work of her painters was consonant with the spirit of their time and place’ and that the artist ‘conceived of Christ and the biblical incidents in terms of his own country and its people.’” Albert Dharmasiri

The Trinity College Chapel holds some of the finest and unique murals related to Christianity in Sri Lanka. A dusky-skinned, beard-less, head-bowed Jesus, clad in a Ceylonese-style loincloth, nailed to a cross along with two parallel figures on either side amidst Ceylonese vegetation spring into life in the massive centre-piece, The Crucifixion. Along with this masterpiece, the other murals depict significant biblical scenes such as; Are Ye Able, Washing the Disciples’ Feet, and The Good Samaritan. All these manifest the core artistic style of David Shillingworth Paynter, the internationally recognized Sri Lankan artist; the representation of European, Christian, and colonial religious faith within Oriental and indigenous background.  

The scholarship which Paynter won at the age of 19 to enter the prestigious Royal Academy, England, gave him the opportunity to study art in Europe. Later, he was able to obtain the Gold Medal at the Royal Academy and along with it the Stott Traveling Scholarship to study in Italy.

It was his experience during his studies in London, and, specifically, the Italian tour which led him to appreciate Renaissance and contemporary European art.  Renaissance artists and the Christian thematic had such a profound and intense impact on Paynter, that these laid a permanent mark on his subsequent paintings, which is resonant in his murals. The catalytic consequence of his travel and study in Europe, therefore was an audacious and a fresh attempt on the customary Christian painting, a venture, equally conventional yet drastic, in the 1920’s. 

“Having studied art for some time in Italy and France, I found that the painters there had painted their own countries and their own times. So, I decided to paint in the way I did, with more or less Ceylon landscapes and more or less Ceylonese types. Besides, I intensely disliked many of the paintings of comparatively recent times where Christ has been portrayed as a blond Englishman and wearing Arab costume.” (David Paynter)

It is thereby, this style of amalgamating the Christian ideology with Ceylonese motifs, which is seen in many of his religious paintings, such as The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and The Entombment, Last Supper, along with Trinity College chapel murals, manifesting his profound religious consciousness. 

Paynter earned international recognition through the gesture of Pope Pius XII, who specifically requested for Paynter’s work to be exhibited in the Contemporary Art Exhibition, of Catholic art which exhibited catholic art from all countries to commemorate the Holy Year, in Rome in 1951. He is also one of the few Ceylonese artists who had his respective works exhibited at the Royal Academy, where Paynter’s works were displayed uninterruptedly for 17 years, from 1923 to 1940. Paynter participated in his very first solo exhibition at the Wertheim Gallery, London, in 1936. An exhibition, which received recognition from contemporary art critics and journals, and eventually led to his subsequent, internationally important exhibitions at Carnegie Institute in Pittsburg, in Rome, in New Delhi, and the World Fair held in New York; ventures, which led to cement his name among the local Sri Lankan artists as well.

Paynter, gradually drifted towards portraiture, towards the later phase of his life, and is notable for his portraiture of the élite and the powerful, as well as of those in lower strata. The official portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru, the former Prime Minister of India, drawn by Paynter on invitation in 1954, is displayed at the Prime Minister’s residence in Delhi. It was through J. R. Jayawardena’s commission that he worked on the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, a venture  supporting Jayawardena’s non-violent campaign. Sri Lankan Parliament in Sri Jayawardenapura houses a portrait of Sir John Kotelawala, former Ceylonese Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, and that of Sir Ivor Jennings at the University of Peradeniya. The portrait, Surgeon in the Wilderness, depicting Dr. R. L. Spittel is in the possession of his daughter.

However, it is through the portraitures of the hard-working, lower classes that his true artistic talent emerged. His portraiture of labourers and folks outside the Ceylonese higher-class, expresses a sincere admiration of the masculine physiology. His semi and complete nude male paintings, such as Pumpkin Boy (1935), A Study, Ceylon (1937), and L’Après-Midi (The Afternoon) (1935) are thought to be notable for an artistic style which manifest acute attentiveness towards the human figure and its detail. The complexity of the human figures had been brought into highlight through the balance of light and shade; and the juxtaposition of different hues of a particular color. His portraits render more importance to the figure than the specifics of the background, and bear qualities of modernism.

David Paynter contributed to the development of Sri Lankan art and had a hand in founding the Heywood Institute for Arts, which later turned into the University of Visual and Performing Arts. He was appointed its Principal, a tenure he held for several years. As a recognition of his service to artistic development in Sri Lanka, and of his talent, he was included in the list of 25 Distinguished Citizens of Ceylon and honoured with the Order of the British Empire.

David Paynter, with his very English name, was born to a Sinhalese, Ceylonese mother and, an English father, both of whom were members of the Salvation Army and had met in India, and returned to Nuwara Eliya to commence a Christian mission. His family who was deeply engaged in Christian belief and service, and his mixed European and Sri Lankan heritage. His upbringing opens a window to understanding Paynter’s deep engagement in Christian belief and service, and the representation of which in his art amidst Ceylonese settings. The same background perhaps led to his retirement to Nuwara Eliya, and his increasing engagement in services for Paynter’s Home for orphan children founded by his father towards the latter part of his life.

Despite his international success, towards the early 1960’s Paynter retired from the Colombo art circles, after completing his final masterpiece, the mural known as The Transfiguration at the chapel of St Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia; a painting which focusses on the essence of transfiguration in a minimalistic manner. He eventually became a farmer, at the Salt Spring Farm at Kumburupiddi, where the Paynter Home’s children who had reached adulthood were settled. He is still hailed as one of the finest Ceylonese artists, and pioneers in using indigenous backgrounds in Christian paintings.