Design
ca. 1880 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Painting, in opaque watercolour and gold on paper, a rectangular frame encloses a cusped arch with spandrels filled with flowers on a bright green ground. The arch encloses a blue, white and pink vase filled with blossoms, and flower-laden branches which overflow into the space around it. Smaller vases of flowers are at right and left, supported on plinths on the top of complicated scrolling ornament. Birds perch on the branches and two green parrots' heads are concealed in the scrolling patterns beneath the largest vase. The frame of the design consists of a flowering scroll and cartouche pattern on a deep salmon ground, with half-columns (split vertically) in gold at the edge of the design (that on the right damaged; the paper may have been cut down on this side).
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Painted in opaque watercolour and gold on paper |
| Brief description | Design for a wall painting, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Lahore, ca. 1880 |
| Physical description | Painting, in opaque watercolour and gold on paper, a rectangular frame encloses a cusped arch with spandrels filled with flowers on a bright green ground. The arch encloses a blue, white and pink vase filled with blossoms, and flower-laden branches which overflow into the space around it. Smaller vases of flowers are at right and left, supported on plinths on the top of complicated scrolling ornament. Birds perch on the branches and two green parrots' heads are concealed in the scrolling patterns beneath the largest vase. The frame of the design consists of a flowering scroll and cartouche pattern on a deep salmon ground, with half-columns (split vertically) in gold at the edge of the design (that on the right damaged; the paper may have been cut down on this side). |
| Dimensions |
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| Content description | a rectangular frame encloses a cusped arch with spandrels filled with flowers on a bright green ground. The arch encloses a blue, white and pink vase filled with blossoms, and flower-laden branches which overflow into the space around it. Smaller vases of flowers are at right and left, supported on plinths on the top of complicated scrolling ornament. Birds perch on the branches and two green parrots' heads are concealed in the scrolling patterns beneath the largest vase. The frame of the design consists of a flowering scroll and cartouche pattern on a deep salmon ground, with half-columns (split vertically) in gold at the edge of the design (that on the right damaged; the paper may have been cut down on this side). |
| Marks and inscriptions | In lower margin, left: "Purdon Clarke Collection (D) Golden Temple Amritsar" in the hand of Caspar Stanley Clarke. On the right, in pencil in a different hand: "Modern Sikh Wall Painitng copied from work of the day in the Golden Temple Amritsar. Invoice no. 2003 (Six drawings)" (In the opinion of the distinguished Sikh writer Patwant Singh, who has made a close study of the Golden Temple, this is not tenable. It may be more likely that the designs were produced by students of the Mayo School of Art in Lahore, where the Principal, John Lockwood Kipling, encouraged his students to study the architectural designs of the region.) |
| Object history | Collected by Caspar Purdon Clarke during his purchasing tour of India on behalf of the South Kensington Museum. Sir Casper Purdon Clarke (1846-1911) was a trained architect who entered HM Office of Works and in 1867 transferred to the Works Department of the South Kensington Museum. He designed the Indian Section of the 1877 Paris Exhibition, and arranged the Indian collections at South Kensington in 1880.The notation in the hand of his son, Caspar Stanley Clarke, seems to show that the group of drawings were bought for his personal collection. Purdon Clarke became the first Keeper of the Indian Section in 1883, and went on to become Director of the V&A and then of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Associated objects | |
| Other number | IND.LOST.1355 - Previous LOST number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | IS.6-1998 |
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| Record created | September 15, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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