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One of nineteen drawings illustrating processes in the manufacture of opium at the Opium Factory at Gulzarbagh, Patna, in Bihar.
Shiva Lal - Enlarge image
One of nineteen drawings illustrating processes in the manufacture of opium at the Opium Factory at Gulzarbagh, Patna, in Bihar.
- Object:
Painting
- Place of origin:
Patna, India (made)
- Date:
ca.1857 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Shiva Lal (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Gouache on mica.
- Museum number:
07361:8/(IS)
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This Company Painting (a painting made by an Indian artist for the British in India) is done on mica (talc) and comes from a series of nineteen illustrating processes in the manufacture of opium at the opium factory at Gulzarbagh in Patna, Bihar. According to the artist Ishwari Prasad, his grandfather, Shiva Lal (c.1817-1887), began to make the designs for these paintings in 1857. They were commissioned by Dr D. R. Lyall (the personal assistant in charge of opium-making) for a series of wall paintings in the Gulzarbagh factory. However, Lyall was killed in 1857, during the so-called Indian Mutiny, and the scheme was abandoned. This picture shows the opium being ladled out of a large wooden box into bowls.
