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One of seven drawings of people and occupations and a lion.
unknown - Enlarge image
One of seven drawings of people and occupations and a lion.
- Object:
Painting
- Place of origin:
Punjab, India (made)
- Date:
ca. 1870 - ca. 1875 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Painted in opaque watercolour on paper
- Credit Line:
Given by Rudyard Kipling
- Museum number:
IM.2:99-1917
- Gallery location:
In Storage
The term ‘Company painting’ is applied to works made by Indian artists for Europeans living and working in India. They especially catered to British employees of the East India Company, the trading firm that, by the 18th century, had acquired a territorial empire in India. Such paintings represent a fusion of traditional Indian artistic styles with conventions and technical features borrowed from western art. The British were especially keen to have visual records of the people and places that surrounded them: portraits of local dignitaries and depictions of the various castes and trades, the strange-looking deities and temples, the festivals and ceremonies, animals and means of transport.
Company painting developed comparatively late in the Panjab in the north-west, since the British did not take over its administration until 1849. This example dating from about 1870–1875 was collected by John Lockwood Kipling while he was director from 1875 to 1893 of the Mayo School of Art at Lahore, in present-day north-east Pakistan. In 1917 it was presented to the V&A by his famous son, Rudyard. It depicts a mali (the Hindi for ‘gardener’) holding a vase of flowers standing on a dish of fruit. There are also flowers growing on either side of him.
