Portrait of an Indian from Calcutta
Watercolour
1852 (Painted)
1852 (Painted)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
In Preziosi's time about a third of the population of Calcutta, capital of Bengal in north-east India, were Muslims. Many of them were merchants and the turbaned man shown here may have been a dealer in Indian shawls or some other textile. The Turkish idiom Hint kumasi (literally Indian cloth) describing any object which is expensive and rare, (sometimes ironically,) derives from the ancient tradition of trade with India.
Object details
Category | |
Object type | |
Title | Portrait of an Indian from Calcutta |
Materials and techniques | Pencil and watercolour touched with while |
Brief description | Portrait of an Indian from Calcutta, 1852. Aloysius Rosarius Amadeus Raymondus Andreas, known as Amadeo, 5th Count Preziosi |
Physical description | Watercolour of an Indian man, seated, wearing a turban |
Dimensions |
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Style | |
Marks and inscriptions | Indiana da Calcutta. II giugno 1852
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Object history | This is one of a group of 31 portraits, acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1900. They were once assembled in an album, but whether by Preziosi himself, or a member of his family, or subsequently, is not known. |
Subject depicted | |
Place depicted | |
Summary | In Preziosi's time about a third of the population of Calcutta, capital of Bengal in north-east India, were Muslims. Many of them were merchants and the turbaned man shown here may have been a dealer in Indian shawls or some other textile. The Turkish idiom Hint kumasi (literally Indian cloth) describing any object which is expensive and rare, (sometimes ironically,) derives from the ancient tradition of trade with India. |
Bibliographic reference | Llewellyn, Briony and Newton, Charles. The People and Places of Constantinople : watercolours by Amadeo Count Preziosi 1816-1882. London, Victori & Albert Museum, 1985
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Collection | |
Accession number | D.21-1900 |
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Record created | June 30, 2009 |
Record URL |
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