COMPANY SCHOOL, CALCUTTA, INDIA, CIRCA 1840

The high level of draughtsmanship and fine details of this portrait of a grey stallion are closely comparable to the work of the Calcutta artist Sheikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya (fl. 1830s-40s). In particular it is comparable to another painting of a flea-bitten grey stallion dated circa 1845, now in the British Library (Add. Or. 489; illustrated in William Dalrymple (ed.), Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company, London, 2021, no.69, p.129). Like the British Library example, our painting exhibits a very high level of draughtsmanship and the horse painted to a very high quality. Of the artists working for British patrons in Calcutta in the 19th century, Sheikh Amir of Karraya was one of the most talented and original as well as prolific (Mildred Archer, Company Drawings in the India Office Library, London, 1972, p.76). Sheikh Muhammad Amir was particularly talented at producing portraits of horses in the style of the Victorian equestrian portraits fashionable in England. This demand is evidenced by the number of works attributed to the School of Sheikh Muhammad Amir in Calcutta as well as works by artists in other centres such as the painter Mummoo in Lucknow (a group of paintings of polo ponies by Mummoo was sold in these Rooms, 21 September 2000, lot 336). Another similar painting of a grey racehorse and groom signed Sheikh Muhammad Amir was sold in these Rooms, 5 October 2010, lot 386 and a large study of a black bear attributed to the same artist sold 1 April 2021, lot 72.