A group of seven Botanical Watercolours Company School, Calcutta, circa 1795-1805(7)
Sold for £12,000 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Islamic and Indian Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistA group of seven Botanical Watercolours
Company School, Calcutta, circa 1795-1805
Company School, Calcutta, circa 1795-1805
530 x 365 mm. and smaller(7)
Footnotes
Provenance:
Formerly with Spink & Son, London.
One sheet is watermarked indistinctly Edwards & Pine[?]; another (depicting lychees) is watermarked 1795. Those inscribed are: Chakor, Kora, Kavita/Croton tinctorium.
The present group of watercolours belongs to one or several dispersed albums of botanical paintings, which are considered by some to be the finest speciments of Company School painting. These albums were produced by Indian artists working under the supervision of European patrons, who wished to record the astounding variety of flora and fauna that they encountered or the first time in the tropical climes of the subcontinent. In the 18th Century, famous albums were commissioned by Lady Mary Impey, wife of the Justice of Bengal, Sir Joshua Impey, and Dr James Kerr, Company Surgeon in the Bengal establishment. The period of execution of the current lot is know as on of prolific natural history painting in Calcutta.
For other examples of similar watercolours, see Mildred Archer, Natural History Drawings in the India Office Library, London, 1962; and Stuart Cary Welch, Room for Wonder: Indian painting during the British period, 1760-1880, New York, 1978, pp. 46-7, no. 12.