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Lot Essay
In addition to his roles as soldier, architect, surveyor, gunsmith, banker and botanist, Martin was a great connoisseur, patron of the arts, and very much a man of the European Enlightenment. Among the artist he patronised are Chinnery, Renaldi and Zoffany. Within eighteen months of the Montgolfier Brothers' first manned flight in a hot-air balloon over Paris, Martin had both built and flown several of his own balloons at Lucknow.
A study of the paper of the Martin drawings suggests that these drawings were made before 1785 and after Claude Martin’s arrival in Lucknow in 1775, at which date drawings of birds were rare in British India. The Marquis of Wellesley was not to form his collection of natural history drawings until twenty years later at his country estate at Barrackpore outside Calcutta. The only other European patrons focusing on Natural History collecting were Sir Elijah and Lady Impey, who commissioned their collection between 1774-1782 in Calcutta, where Impey was Chief Justice of Bengal. Impey visited Martin in 1781-2 and it is possible his visit inspired this project. It has been suggested that the Martin Natural Drawings were based on the format of the Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, by le Comte de Buffon, published between 1771-1786. Martin's original collection comprised no less than 658 birds, 600 plants and 606 reptiles as well as drawings of mammals. The scale and ambition of Martin's project was not equalled until Dr. Francis Buchanan, commissioned drawings at the East India Company's botanical Garden at Sibpur, Calcutta in 1793 and Wellesley's commission of 2,660 natural history folios at Fort William from 1798-1805. Martin's work appears to have been among the very first attempts by a European to seriously catalogue India's flora and fauna.
For a complete discussion on Claude Martin’s collection of natural history drawings see Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, The Lucknow Menagerie, Natural History Drawings from the Collection of Claude Martin (1735-1800), Niall Hobhouse, London, 2001.
Such paintings are rare as many were destroyed in the sack of the Lucknow palaces in 1857. Similar examples were sold at Christie's London, 25 May 1995, lot 29; 30 September, 1997, lots 1-20; 22 May 2008, lots 18-23.
A study of the paper of the Martin drawings suggests that these drawings were made before 1785 and after Claude Martin’s arrival in Lucknow in 1775, at which date drawings of birds were rare in British India. The Marquis of Wellesley was not to form his collection of natural history drawings until twenty years later at his country estate at Barrackpore outside Calcutta. The only other European patrons focusing on Natural History collecting were Sir Elijah and Lady Impey, who commissioned their collection between 1774-1782 in Calcutta, where Impey was Chief Justice of Bengal. Impey visited Martin in 1781-2 and it is possible his visit inspired this project. It has been suggested that the Martin Natural Drawings were based on the format of the Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, by le Comte de Buffon, published between 1771-1786. Martin's original collection comprised no less than 658 birds, 600 plants and 606 reptiles as well as drawings of mammals. The scale and ambition of Martin's project was not equalled until Dr. Francis Buchanan, commissioned drawings at the East India Company's botanical Garden at Sibpur, Calcutta in 1793 and Wellesley's commission of 2,660 natural history folios at Fort William from 1798-1805. Martin's work appears to have been among the very first attempts by a European to seriously catalogue India's flora and fauna.
For a complete discussion on Claude Martin’s collection of natural history drawings see Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, The Lucknow Menagerie, Natural History Drawings from the Collection of Claude Martin (1735-1800), Niall Hobhouse, London, 2001.
Such paintings are rare as many were destroyed in the sack of the Lucknow palaces in 1857. Similar examples were sold at Christie's London, 25 May 1995, lot 29; 30 September, 1997, lots 1-20; 22 May 2008, lots 18-23.