The Indian masters whom the British flocked to collect
In the 17th and 18th centuries, high ranking officials of the East India Company became the new patrons of local painters, and demanded realistically rendered flora, fauna and domestic scenes. This came to be called Company art, an exhibition of which is on display in London.
The plumage of the Himalayan monal is a striking combination of electric blue, bright brown, orange and various shades of green, and only an artist trained in the style of Mughal miniature art could show each iridescent colour, feather by feather. For Sheikh Zain al-Din, an 18th century Indian master artist, the bird belonging to the pheasant family was only one of depictions for which his atelier and he were most sought after.
Lady Mary Impey, wife of the chief justice of Bengal Sir Elijah Impey, was a natural historian who built a menagerie while the family lived in Calcutta. She and her husband commissioned several paintings of these birds. Zain al-Din and his fellow artists would work painstakingly to create what were nothing less than masterpieces for albums that served a dual role for their English patrons. On the one hand, they recorded — what the photograph began to do within a century— and on the other, furthered the colonial enterprise of Enlightenment through such scientific discoveries.
It’s little wonder that the scientific name, Lophophorus impejanus, commemorates the Impeys and the Himalayan monal, whose habitat lies along the Himalayan range from Afghanistan to Bhutan, is often also called the Impeyan monal.
A new exhibition of artworks made in the 18th and 19th centuries by such Indian masters as Zain al-din is on display at Bonhams, an auction house headquartered in London. None of the works — all of which belong to a private collection —is for sale in the exhibition curated by the founder of an Instagram account, Arts of Hindostan.
The Instagram handle, which was started over a year and a half ago, offers a wide range of images pertaining to various kinds of subcontinental art, architecture, and design aesthetics. Its founder, who wishes to remain anonymous, told HT that previous collaborations with the auction house in 2018 and ’19, showcased works of Mughal and Rajput art, as well as Company art: paintings made by artists for English East India Company patrons after the patronage of the Mughal empire began to wane.
The Impeys weren’t the only patrons of the arts. The exhibition showcases individual works and albums of paintings depicting the rich flora, fauna and domestic scenes of the subcontinent. It pays tribute to the Indian masters who achieved great fame for their realistic style which deviated from their learned lineage of Mughal and Rajput art in both, medium and subject matter. The Company school emerged in Murshidabad and spread to other centers of British trade, including Patna, Benares and Lucknow. Many artists migrated and began to work out of these centres.
For instance, Marriage procession night scene, circa 1810, forms part of a series made by noted Indian master artist Sewak Ram and sold to high ranking British officials in the early 19th century. According to the Bonhams catalogue, Sewak Ram migrated from Murshidabad in West Bengal to Patna in 1790, where he worked till 1826. He seems to have had different styles of painting, with his larger compositions seeming closer to European water colours with an emphasis on modelling, transparency and neutral tones.
Another prolific master painter was Sita Ram, whose works now form part of the collection in the British Library. Sita Ram was hired to record the travels of Sir Francis Rawdon, Governor General of Bengal from 1814-1821. In fact, between June 1814 and October 1815, he produced no less than 230 large water colours, including several botanical specimens such as frangipani, lilies, custard apples and mangoes, made in a photo realistic style.
Besides fauna and flora, the artists also captured scenes of everyday life of the Company ‘sahibs’. One of the paintings that forms part of the exhibition is Horse and groom made by Shaikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya (in Calcutta province). It is part of an 1840 album commissioned by an unknown Englishman whose house, servants, horses and dogs formed the subjects of the paintings. The focus of the painting is the magnificent steed, and it is also signed by the artist — another clear departure from the previous traditions of courtly paintings.
Another ongoing exhibition curated by author William Dalrymple titled ‘Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company, showcases similar Company art which now forms part of the Wallace Collection.
In Good Company is on view at Bonhams, New Bond Street, London till January 17 (weekdays only).
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