An elephant with a howdah
Painting
ca. 1870 (painted)
ca. 1870 (painted)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
This Company Painting is from a series of 40 illustrating modes of transport, occupations, entertainers, ascetics and Muharram subjects. (Company Paintings were so-called because they were made by Indian artists for the British in India.) Paintings on mica (talc) were produced in Murshidabad, Patna and Varanasi (Benares) in eastern India and in Tiruchirapalli (Trichinopoly) in the south. Indian artists had long used the material for preserving tracings of their family paintings. But sets of pictures depicting occupations, ceremonies, vehicles and so forth were made exclusively for European patrons.
Object details
Category | |
Object type | |
Title | An elephant with a howdah (generic title) |
Materials and techniques | Opaque watercolour on mica |
Brief description | Painting; gouache on mica, One of forty paintings illustrating modes of transport, occupations, entertainers, ascetics and Muharram subjects, Benares, ca. 1870 |
Physical description | An elephant with a howdah containing two men with a mahout (driver) seated in front of them. Another pair of men are walking in front carrying spears. One of a set of forty paintings. |
Dimensions |
|
Style | |
Credit line | Given by Mrs E. M. Bannister |
Object history | Presented by Mrs E.M. Bannister. |
Subject depicted | |
Summary | This Company Painting is from a series of 40 illustrating modes of transport, occupations, entertainers, ascetics and Muharram subjects. (Company Paintings were so-called because they were made by Indian artists for the British in India.) Paintings on mica (talc) were produced in Murshidabad, Patna and Varanasi (Benares) in eastern India and in Tiruchirapalli (Trichinopoly) in the south. Indian artists had long used the material for preserving tracings of their family paintings. But sets of pictures depicting occupations, ceremonies, vehicles and so forth were made exclusively for European patrons. |
Bibliographic reference | Archer, Mildred. Company Paintings Indian Paintings of the British period
Victoria and Albert Museum Indian Series London: Victoria and Albert Museum, Maplin Publishing, 1992, 207 p ISBN 0944142303 |
Collection | |
Accession number | IS.20:32-1956 |
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Record created | December 15, 1999 |
Record URL |
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