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Lot Essay
The Satyr Tragopan is a large bird of the pheasant family. It is found in moist forests with deciduous and rhododendron trees and dense undergrowth, in large areas of the Himalayan mountains.
This watercolour is in the same style as other known depictions of the male satyr tragopan by artists working in the studio of Lady Impey in Calcutta. Lady Mary Impey, the wife of Sir Elijah Impey who was appointed the first Chief Justice in Bengal in 1774, collected exotic creatures in the garden of their home in Calcutta. The animal and bird drawings made for Lady Impey between 1777 and 1783 are considered amongst the earliest and finest natural history illustrations made for the British in India. Shaykh Zayn al-Din, an artist from Patna who had been trained in the Mughal technique of miniature painting, joined the Impey studio in 1777. Two Hindu artists, Bhawani Das and Ram Das, also from Patna joined three years later. The Impeys came back to London in 1783, bringing their collection of paintings back with them. By this time, a total of 326 drawings had been completed, 197 of them birds.
An almost identical version from the Impey Album, attributed to Shaykh Zayn al-Din sold at Sotheby’s, London, 12 October 2005, lot 41. Another version formerly in the collection of the Linnean Society of London since 1855, bearing an inscription identifying the artist as Ram Das, sold in these Rooms, 10 June 2015, lot 61.
Our watercolour also finds comparison with an illustration of an East Asiatic white stork by a Calcutta artist dated to circa 1803 (Hobhouse, 2001, no.15). The stork is on paper with the same watermark of Whatman and a fleur-de-lys with the letters ‘GR’ underneath, and a single word of identification below the bird in similar black nasta’liq script. Vishnu Prasad, Gurudayal, Haludar and Mahangu Lal were artists who worked on botanical drawings for the Scottish botanist, Dr William Roxburgh in Calcutta in the late 18th century and also on drawings of birds from the Wellesley Collection now in the British Library (acc.no. OIOC NHD 2). It has been suggested that the stork was done by one of these artists, along with the drawing of a short-toed eagle (Hobhouse, ibid., no.9). Perhaps one of them, working in the style of the Impey studio artists, was also responsible for the present lot. For another illustration of a bird attributed to one of the aforementioned artists, see the preceding lot, 149.
This watercolour is in the same style as other known depictions of the male satyr tragopan by artists working in the studio of Lady Impey in Calcutta. Lady Mary Impey, the wife of Sir Elijah Impey who was appointed the first Chief Justice in Bengal in 1774, collected exotic creatures in the garden of their home in Calcutta. The animal and bird drawings made for Lady Impey between 1777 and 1783 are considered amongst the earliest and finest natural history illustrations made for the British in India. Shaykh Zayn al-Din, an artist from Patna who had been trained in the Mughal technique of miniature painting, joined the Impey studio in 1777. Two Hindu artists, Bhawani Das and Ram Das, also from Patna joined three years later. The Impeys came back to London in 1783, bringing their collection of paintings back with them. By this time, a total of 326 drawings had been completed, 197 of them birds.
An almost identical version from the Impey Album, attributed to Shaykh Zayn al-Din sold at Sotheby’s, London, 12 October 2005, lot 41. Another version formerly in the collection of the Linnean Society of London since 1855, bearing an inscription identifying the artist as Ram Das, sold in these Rooms, 10 June 2015, lot 61.
Our watercolour also finds comparison with an illustration of an East Asiatic white stork by a Calcutta artist dated to circa 1803 (Hobhouse, 2001, no.15). The stork is on paper with the same watermark of Whatman and a fleur-de-lys with the letters ‘GR’ underneath, and a single word of identification below the bird in similar black nasta’liq script. Vishnu Prasad, Gurudayal, Haludar and Mahangu Lal were artists who worked on botanical drawings for the Scottish botanist, Dr William Roxburgh in Calcutta in the late 18th century and also on drawings of birds from the Wellesley Collection now in the British Library (acc.no. OIOC NHD 2). It has been suggested that the stork was done by one of these artists, along with the drawing of a short-toed eagle (Hobhouse, ibid., no.9). Perhaps one of them, working in the style of the Impey studio artists, was also responsible for the present lot. For another illustration of a bird attributed to one of the aforementioned artists, see the preceding lot, 149.