“Every hut, equipage, utensil, and beast of India is picturesque.” – East India Company official Captain Rodney Mundy
Indian Company School artworks, which have long been described as “picturesque”, hold a unique place in both Indian and British history. The Company School is a category describing paintings, drawings, and prints depicting Indian subjects commissioned by British audiences (the most popular works are paintings). This form was born as a result of the East India Company’s presence in India, the Enlightenment, and a growing European taste for picturesque artworks. The Picturesque movement was an artistic phenomenon that originated in England with artist William Gilpin, but developed and was popularized in India, subsequently affecting artistic tastes across both continents. From the Picturesque movement emerged the Company School, which provided colonial audiences with a new hybrid form of European and Indian techniques. The Company School ultimately portrayed India from a British perspective and in a romanticized and exoticized fashion, as is demonstrated by Captain Rodney Mundy’s quote above. Common subjects of Company School artworks included architecture, flora and fauna, landscapes, and English and Indian figures. There are too many categories to explore here in detail, so the focus of this article will be architecture and flora and fauna. Today, Company School items frequently fetch high auction results and enjoy prominent displays in museums across the world. The strongest Western market for this genre is London, followed by New York and Paris.
Defining Company Paintings
Although Company School paintings primarily refer to colonial artworks produced in India, they also include works from Burma, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Company School works can be differentiated by date, region, court, school of painting, artist, and patron. Patrons are often categorized by collector or the East India Company official who commissioned paintings to document the Company’s assets. Collectors were generally art enthusiasts who allowed more authentically Indian styles in their paintings, while Company employees required their artists to adhere more strictly to European tastes.
Company Paintings of Architecture
One of the most popular subjects of Company School Paintings is Indian architecture. Commonly depicted sites include the Taj Mahal, Jama Masjid, Hindu temples in Mathura and Tanjore, the Mughal observatory at Delhi, and the hillforts of Mysore. Two particularly influential British Company artists were Thomas Daniell and his nephew William Daniell. In 1785, the Daniells traveled from England to Calcutta to paint and document Indian scenes for the East India Company. Calcutta was a wealthy Indian city, famous for its numerous patrons of the arts, extensive British presence, and vibrant Indian culture. Thomas Daniell would become well known particularly for his meticulous pieces, using a camera obscura draw as accurately as possible. As some of the top artists in this genre, they continue to enjoy a strong market; for example, Thomas Daniell’s painting The Shore Temple was estimated to sell at auction last year for 30,000 – 50,000 GBP, but the realized price was 165,000 GBP.
Thomas Daniell’s, “The Shore Temple” (undated), © Dreweatts Auctioneers & Valuers
Company Paintings of Flora and Fauna
A large volume of Company artwork came from Calcutta, which had a successful trade house, botanical gardens, and an abundance of wealthy patrons. Flora and fauna were of particular interest, often documenting species that were completely new to English audiences. One of the greatest patrons of Company artwork of flora and fauna was Lady Impey, wife of Lord Impey, the chief justice of the High Court in the late 18th century. Paintings from her collection consistently have a strong market. Many of these were painted by the renowned Indian artist Zayn al-Din, such as this painting of a lineated barbet, which greatly exceeded the preauction estimate of 120,000 – 180,000 GBP at Christie’s last year, selling for 315,000 GBP.
Zayn al-Din’s, “A Lineated Barbet (Psilopogon Zeylanicus) on a Juniper Tree”, 1778, © Christie’s London
The Demise of Company Painting and Today’s Market
The golden age of Company School art lasted for approximately a half century, beginning with the portrait artist Tilly Kettle in 1769 and concluding with the departure of Company artist George Chinnery from India. By the mid-19th century, demand for Company paintings had decreased drastically. A common theory is that the invention of photography was primary cause of this decline, as photography was a faster and more accurate method of documenting Anglo-Indian life. This coincided with shifting English tastes and artistic demands. In Victorian England, the increasing demand for portraiture persuaded English artists who otherwise might have traveled to or remained in India to instead remain in England. Company paintings were largely forgotten until the early 1970s, when Company School scholar Mildred Archer pioneered a new academic field. Archer published a great quantity of literature on Company painting and paved the way for later researchers of Company paintings, which the market reflects. Above all, the Company School provides a great deal of historical information and insight into Anglo-Indian life in the colonial era from the perspective of the East India Company.
This article was written by a USPAP-compliant Asian art specialist on the AAG panel of experts, who is experienced in international valuations.
