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Lot Essay
This large and impressive watercolour of a parrot belongs to a tradition of ornithological enquiry in India at the turn of the 19th century. The two major contemporary sets of bird drawings compiled in Calcutta are those of Marquess Wellesley, Governor General of Bengal from 1798-1804, and of Francis Buchanan (1762-1829), both now in the British Library. As early as 1800 Wellesley ordered birds and quadrupeds to be collected for his College at Fort William. These were moved to his country seat north of Calcutta at Barrackpore in 1804, where they were placed under the supervision of Buchanan. This collection became known as the Barrackpore Menagerie. Between 1804 and 1808 Buchanan also had scientific drawings of both birds and animals executed and sent to London. Both the Buchanan and the Wellesley sets included illustrations which were done in a 'scientific' manner showing just the specimen without landscape or shadows, like the present lot, but sometimes with a pencil outline of a branch.
The artists employed to draw the Buchanan and some of the Wellesley collections were normally employed at the Sibpur Botanic Gardens in Calcutta drawing the extensive collections of plants belonging to the Scottish botanist, Dr William Roxburgh. Their names are known from some of the inscriptions on the Buchanan set - Vishnu Prasad, Gurudayal, Haludar, Mahangu Lal - and it is possible that they also worked on our parrot. For another example attributed to one of these artists, see the following lot, 150.
The present lot also finds comparison with folios from an album of 101 illustrations of birds and animals from Calcutta, painted in the early 19th century, and sold in these Rooms, 7 October 2008, lot 266. Most of the illustrations show a single bird, without any background or visual context, each folio numbered and with the name of the species or a more common name.
The artists employed to draw the Buchanan and some of the Wellesley collections were normally employed at the Sibpur Botanic Gardens in Calcutta drawing the extensive collections of plants belonging to the Scottish botanist, Dr William Roxburgh. Their names are known from some of the inscriptions on the Buchanan set - Vishnu Prasad, Gurudayal, Haludar, Mahangu Lal - and it is possible that they also worked on our parrot. For another example attributed to one of these artists, see the following lot, 150.
The present lot also finds comparison with folios from an album of 101 illustrations of birds and animals from Calcutta, painted in the early 19th century, and sold in these Rooms, 7 October 2008, lot 266. Most of the illustrations show a single bird, without any background or visual context, each folio numbered and with the name of the species or a more common name.