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Lot Essay
The same figure appears in two larger compositions by the 'Fraser Artist', one in the Metropolitan Museum, inv. no. 09.227.1, the other, from the Fraser Album that was commissioned between 1815-1819, now in the Louvre Abu Dhabi (Mildred Archer and Toby Falk, India Revealed, The Art and Adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-1835, 1989, p. 104, no. 82, second from right). Archer and Falk note that King Bodawpaya (r.1801-1835) sent out embassies in the hope of forming alliances to check the growing power of the British East India Company. Embassies were sent in 1807, 1808, 1813 and 1817; it is probable that Siri Raja Shudao was a member of that final embassy. In addition to his native Burmese costume he has added an elegant Indian Kashmir sash tied around his waist. It is somehow ironic that he is depicted in a style that quintessentially represents the power that he was part of a mission to try to limit.
William Fraser (1783-1835) was employed in the East India Company from his arrival in Bengal in 1799, until his assassination in Delhi in 1835. His brother James Baillie Fraser (1783-1856), an amateur artist and author, joined him in India in 1814. Between 1815 and 1820 the brothers commissioned a collection of watercolors. This group of over ninety drawings by Indian artists, discovered amongst the Fraser Papers in 1979, is arguably one of the finest groups of Company School pictures yet known.
The Fraser Album drawings are amongst the earliest of Company School works. The names of the artists are not known, but the collection represents the diverse range of people to be seen in Delhi and its environs and includes portraits of the Emperor, his courtiers, dancing girls, musicians, Afghan horse-dealers, ascetics and villagers bringing in their rent. Local costumes, customs, architecture and scenery, are recorded in exquisite detail. The brothers also commissioned works while travelling through the Himalayas on their return from the Nepal War (1814-15). The present painting is a good example of the breadth of their interest.
These drawings have 'not only made a great contribution to knowledge of the work of Indian artists in early nineteenth-century Delhi, but provide an unsurpassed record of life in and around the old Mughal capital before chaos and the new British administration brought that rich culture to an end' (Archer and Falk, op.cit. p. 57).
William Fraser (1783-1835) was employed in the East India Company from his arrival in Bengal in 1799, until his assassination in Delhi in 1835. His brother James Baillie Fraser (1783-1856), an amateur artist and author, joined him in India in 1814. Between 1815 and 1820 the brothers commissioned a collection of watercolors. This group of over ninety drawings by Indian artists, discovered amongst the Fraser Papers in 1979, is arguably one of the finest groups of Company School pictures yet known.
The Fraser Album drawings are amongst the earliest of Company School works. The names of the artists are not known, but the collection represents the diverse range of people to be seen in Delhi and its environs and includes portraits of the Emperor, his courtiers, dancing girls, musicians, Afghan horse-dealers, ascetics and villagers bringing in their rent. Local costumes, customs, architecture and scenery, are recorded in exquisite detail. The brothers also commissioned works while travelling through the Himalayas on their return from the Nepal War (1814-15). The present painting is a good example of the breadth of their interest.
These drawings have 'not only made a great contribution to knowledge of the work of Indian artists in early nineteenth-century Delhi, but provide an unsurpassed record of life in and around the old Mughal capital before chaos and the new British administration brought that rich culture to an end' (Archer and Falk, op.cit. p. 57).
