A LINEATED BARBET (PSILOPOGON ZEYLANICUS) ON A JUNIPER TREE
A LINEATED BARBET (PSILOPOGON ZEYLANICUS) ON A JUNIPER TREE
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PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
A LINEATED BARBET (PSILOPOGON ZEYLANICUS) ON A JUNIPER TREE

SIGNED SHAYKH ZAYN AL-DIN (FL. 1777-1782), CALCUTTA, INDIA, DATED 1778

Details
A LINEATED BARBET (PSILOPOGON ZEYLANICUS) ON A JUNIPER TREE
SIGNED SHAYKH ZAYN AL-DIN (FL. 1777-1782), CALCUTTA, INDIA, DATED 1778
Translucent pigments on English paper watermarked 'J Whatman', inscribed in black pen in nasta'liq and English in the lower left corner, numbered '58' in the upper left in pencil, verso with the seal of Sir Elijah Impey, mounted, framed and glazed
20 7⁄8 x 27 1/8in. (53 x 69cm.)
Provenance
Collection of Sir Elijah (1732-1809) and Lady Mary Impey (1749-1818), sold as The Estate of Sir Elijah Impey, Phillips of New Bond Street, 21 May 1810
Anon sale, Christie's, London, 5 June 2007, lot 228
With Graham Arader, New York, sold, Sotheby's, New York, 19 June 2009, lot 129
With Simon Ray, London, 2009
Private American collection, sold The Maitri Collection of Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art, Bonhams, New York, 20 March 2018, lot 3234
Literature
T. Falk and G. Hayter, Birds in an Indian Garden, exhibition catalogue, Michael Goedhuis Ltd with Colnaghi Oriental and Mallett & Son Ltd, London, 1984
Simon Ray, Indian & Islamic Works of Art, London, 2009, no.35.
Exhibited
Birds in an Indian Garden: Nineteen Illustrations from the Impey Collection, Michael Goedhuis Ltd, London, 12 June - 14 July 1984
Engraved
In the lower left corner, derakht-e deyodar, 'Honest face, sat-e ruh' In the Collection of Lady Impey in Calcutta
Painted by Zayn al-Din Native of Patna 1778

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Lot Essay


Of the three artists involved in the compilation of Lady Impey's album, Zayn al-Din was the only one involved from its inception. He was extraordinarily prolific, producing around 40 works in 1777 alone. Like the present lot, the majority of these early paintings were of the ‘bird and branch’ genre. Other examples in the same vein include the painting of a Sulphur-crested cockatoo on a custard apple branch in the Ashmolean Museum (LI901.6), and the Rufous Treepie and Brahminy Starling in the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2018.53.10 and 2018.53.3). A striking feature of many of these paintings is that the branch is presented with a cross-section of the stem, as though neatly cut from a plant and hanging in space. The tension between verisimilitude and fantasy, perfect stillness and lively animation, reflects the manner in which Zayn al-Din looked to both European and Mughal painting for inspiration. For a discussion of the patronage of the Impey Album, see the previous lot in this sale.

The naturalist John Latham refers to Lady Impey's album throughout the 1787 supplement to his General Synopsis of Birds. When describing Barbets, he notes that 'among the drawings of Lady Impey is a bird, which I suspect to be the female of this species'. He appreciatively records the forensic detail with which Zayn al-Din has captured the bird, allowing Latham to make an accurate taxonomical description despite having never seen a specimen: thus he is able to describe details such as the bill with 'six or eight bristles at the base' as well as the overall colouring. He also remarks on the caption at the bottom, noting that in India the bird 'goes by the name of Honest Face'.

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