EIGHT COMPANY SCHOOL WATERCOLOUR PORTRAITS OF INDIAN TRADESMEN
Possibly Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, Eastern India, ca. 1860s – 1880s

Opaque pigments on paper, each circular portrait depicting an Indian tradesman engaged in his profession, the trades represented including a farmer ploughing with an ox, a cotton carder, a potter at his wheel, a man scrubbing and washing textiles in the river, a textile wood block printer preparing a kalamkari, a merchant or grocer at his stall, a metalworker or smith at his bench, and another enjoying a moment of relax, smoking a huqqa in front of his working tools, the scenes set in delicate landscape or workshop backgrounds, the series exemplifying the topographical and documentary qualities characteristic of Company School paintings, a tradition which flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries as Indian artists responded to European patronage under the East India Company, mostly produced for British patrons, offering a valuable visual record of traditional Indian occupations, attire, caste system, and material culture of the late East India Company and early British Raj period, each set of four mounted, glazed and framed.

Each approx. 84cm x 28cm including the frame

For a similar series with further sellers and Indian subjects, please see the next lot 40.