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Lot Essay
This group of three watercolours is an exceptional example of the Patna School at its finest. Patna school is one of the best documented of the Company Schools of painting but watercolours of this quality are rarely seen. There had been a British factory at Patna for a number of years exporting sugar, lac, cotton, indigo, musk and opium, and by 1800 the town was a flourishing centre of industry. The Bengal Presidency was divided into eleven provincial committees and in 1800 Patna became the headquarters of one such committee. The affluence in the area encouraged the migration of a large number of artists from Murshidabad who set up to paint for the employees of the East India Company.
Patna school watercolours are usually smaller than the present examples and often exclude such highly finished backgrounds. It is interesting to note that the architecture and width of the river in the present watercolours, although not topographically accurate, are reminiscent of that of Lucknow so it is possible that they are by a Patna artist painting in Lucknow or using a Lucknow prototype for his painting.
The stripy carpet is a typical motif of Patna school painting and is a device popular with Indian artists who looked to the work of artists such as Balthazar Solvyns (1760-1824) to learn to paint perspective in the European manner. (See F.B. Solvyns, Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos.., London, 1799.)
Another early Patna school watercolour of an indoor swing is included in a group of watercolours that have been dated to between 1795 and 1800, in the India Office Library, see M. Archer, Company Drawings in the India Office Library, London, 1972, pl. 35.
Patna school watercolours are usually smaller than the present examples and often exclude such highly finished backgrounds. It is interesting to note that the architecture and width of the river in the present watercolours, although not topographically accurate, are reminiscent of that of Lucknow so it is possible that they are by a Patna artist painting in Lucknow or using a Lucknow prototype for his painting.
The stripy carpet is a typical motif of Patna school painting and is a device popular with Indian artists who looked to the work of artists such as Balthazar Solvyns (1760-1824) to learn to paint perspective in the European manner. (See F.B. Solvyns, Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos.., London, 1799.)
Another early Patna school watercolour of an indoor swing is included in a group of watercolours that have been dated to between 1795 and 1800, in the India Office Library, see M. Archer, Company Drawings in the India Office Library, London, 1972, pl. 35.