Spoonbill (Platalea Leucorodia) (Watercolour)

Colonel Claude Martin was a Frenchman living in Lucknow in the late 18th century. He arrived in the city in 1775 and was appointed Superintendent of the arsenal of the Nawab of Lucknow. During his residence in the city he collected on a grand scale, and across a wide range of European and Indian objects and paintings. This depiction of a Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) by an unknown Lucknow artist belonged to his large set of natural history paintings of the kind bought or commissioned by other European collectors at the same time.

Physical description

A painting of a white spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) on the bank of a stream, the bird itself almost comprising the whole image. The treatment of the landscape with small rounded bushes and clumps of grass is typical of Lucknow painting in the late eighteenth century.

Place of Origin

Lucknow, India (made)

Date

ca. 1780 (painted)

Artist/maker

Unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Watercolour on paper

Marks and inscriptions

'Duriya'
'632'
'Platalea Leucorodia'

Dimensions

height: 63 cm, Width: 47.8 cm

Object history note

Part of a set of bird paintings made for Colonel Claude Martin (1735-1810) at Lucknow.

Descriptive line

Painting; watercolour, Spoonbill (Platalea Leucorodia), Lucknow, ca. 1780

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

M.Archer, Company Paintings (V&A, 1992), cat.no.90. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, ed., Lucknow: Then and Now, Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2003, p. 112, fig. 8.
Archer, Mildred. Company Paintings Indian Paintings of the British period Victoria and Albert Museum Indian Series London: Victoria and Albert Museum, Maplin Publishing, 1992 122 p. ISBN 0944142303

Materials

Paper; Watercolour

Techniques

Painted

Subjects depicted

River; Shadow; Spoonbill

Collection code

SSEA

Please complete the form to email this item.

Explore related objects

Category

Material

Subject

Style

Technique

Name

Place

Collection

Spoonbill (Platalea Leucorodia)