A 'huqqa-burdar'
Painting
ca. 1845 (painted)
ca. 1845 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The pictures made by Indian artists for the British in India are called Company paintings. This one comes from a set. The other pictures are in the British Library. Shaikh Muhammad Amir, who painted this picture around 1845, was a distinguished Company artist who worked in the Karraya suburb of Calcutta. From about the 1780s British residents began to move out of the city centre to the pleasant new suburbs of Chowringhee and Garden Reach. Here local artists found plenty of work. Shaikh Muhammad Amir specialised in depicting the houses and domestic staff of British suburbanites. The man in the painting is a huqqa-burdar ('huqqa-bearer'). This was 'a servant whose duty it was to attend to his master's hooka [huqqa], and who considered that duty sufficient to occupy his time' . The definition comes from Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary (first published 1886).
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | A 'huqqa-burdar' (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Painted in watercolour and tin alloy on paper.
Paper is watermarked 'J. Waterman Turk'. |
| Brief description | Painting; watercolour, A 'huqqa-burdar', Calcutta, ca. 1845 |
| Physical description | A 'huqqa-burdar' |
| Dimensions |
|
| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | Hooka Burdar. S. Mohommad Amr Pr Std [painter stationed] at Karraya. (Inscription; decoration; English; Roman; beneath image; ink) |
| Gallery label | PAINTING OF A HUQQA BURDAR
Shaikh Muhammad Amir
Watercolour on paper, inscribed in ink
Calcutta (Kolkata),
West Bengal
c. 1845
IS.260-1955
Commissioned by a British resident of Calcutta, this painting illustrates a servant whose duties are to attend to his master’s huqqa or waterpipe. It is one of Shaikh Muhammad Amir’s simpler studies. Indian artists adapted their style to cater to western tastes which often resulted
in realistic but static figures against plain backgrounds.(01/08/2017) |
| Summary | The pictures made by Indian artists for the British in India are called Company paintings. This one comes from a set. The other pictures are in the British Library. Shaikh Muhammad Amir, who painted this picture around 1845, was a distinguished Company artist who worked in the Karraya suburb of Calcutta. From about the 1780s British residents began to move out of the city centre to the pleasant new suburbs of Chowringhee and Garden Reach. Here local artists found plenty of work. Shaikh Muhammad Amir specialised in depicting the houses and domestic staff of British suburbanites. The man in the painting is a huqqa-burdar ('huqqa-bearer'). This was 'a servant whose duty it was to attend to his master's hooka [huqqa], and who considered that duty sufficient to occupy his time' . The definition comes from Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary (first published 1886). |
| 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, 103 p ISBN 0944142303 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | IS.260-1955 |
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| Record created | December 15, 1999 |
| Record URL |
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