WATERCOLOUR OF A HIPPOPOTAMUS FROM THE COLLECTION OF WARREN HASTINGS (1732-1818) GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA

Project Details

WATERCOLOUR OF A HIPPOPOTAMUS FROM THE COLLECTION OF WARREN HASTINGS (1732-1818) GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA

COMPANY SCHOOL, LUCKNOW, INDIA

CIRCA 1780

DIMENSIONS: 27.5 x 42cm.

Pen, ink and watercolour on ‘J Kool’ watermarked paper, scale and identification in brown ink above, the verso plain, mounted, framed and glazed.

PUBLISHED IN:

Indian Drawings of Plants and Animals, exhibition catalogue, Hobhouse Limited, Spring 1986, No. 5.

Engraved:

Along the top edge: No. 1 Hippopotamia amphibious, Male

The present painting is closely related to a watercolour of a hippopotamus by the Dutch explorer and naturalist Robert Jacob Gordon (1743-1795), which is now in the Rijksmuseum (RP-T-1914-17-197), Amsterdam. Please see the link: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200475574

Robert Jacob Gordon produced fine and detailed studies of flora and fauna whilst in South Africa in the late 18th century. It is likely that Warren Hastings commissioned the present painting after seeing Gordon’s watercolour.

Company painting (kampani kalam) is a term for a highly original, hybrid Indo-European style of paintings made in British India by Indian artists. Many of these artists worked for patrons in the East India Company or other foreign companies in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The company style blended traditional elements from Rajput and Mughal painting predominately, with a more Western treatment of perspective, volume and recession. Most paintings were small, reflecting the Indian miniature tradition, but some of the natural history paintings of plants and birds were usually life size. First emerging in Murshidabad, leading centres were the main British settlements or influence centres of Calcutta, Madras, Banaras, Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Trichinopoly or Tanjore. Subjects included portraits, landscapes and views, and scenes of Indian people, portfolios of animal or botanical subjects.

Series of figures of different castes or trades were also sought after. Architectural subjects were popular, usually done in a detailed and frontal style more like that of an architectural draftsman than the Romanticised style used by most European painters visiting India. The techniques varied, but mostly drew on Western watercolour technique, from which transparency of texture, soft tones and modelling in broad strokes were borrowed.

PROVENANCE

Warren Hastings, Gloucestershire (d.1818), Governor General of India.

Hobhouse Limited, London, 1986.

Barry Sainsbury (d.1999).

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Margaret Erskine for writing this article on the present miniature painting.

Categories: Calligraphy & Miniatures

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

WATERCOLOUR OF A HIPPOPOTAMUS FROM THE COLLECTION OF WARREN HASTINGS (1732-1818) GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA

Enquiries