Brahminy Starling with Two Antheraea Moths, Caterpillar, and Cocoon on Indian Jujube Tree

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Artist: Sheikh Zain al-Din (Indian)
Medium: Opaque colors and ink on paper
Size: 30 × 38 × 1 in. (76.2 × 96.52 × 2.54 cm) (outer frame)
Museum: Minneapolis Institute of Art
Rights: Public Domain Mark

The famed ‘Impey Album, ’ to which these 11 natural history studies originally belonged, marks the beginning of a new school in the canon of Indian Painting: that is “Company Painting’’—so called after the British East India Company, which by 1757 had taken effective rule over the sub-continent—spanning from c. 1760-1880 and distinguished by native painters adapting to the needs of Colonial tastes. The result was an emergence of a distinctive Anglo-Indian aesthetic, which we see in the remarkable paintings here.

Between 1777-1783, Lady Mary Impey, wife of the recently appointed Chief Justice of Bengal, Sir Elijah Impey, commissioned three artists: a Muslim, Shaik Zain ud-Din, and two Hindus, Bhawani Das and Ram Das (all of whom trained in a Provincial Mughal atelier in the neighboring city of Patna) to record the newfound wonders of her Calcutta aviary and menagerie.

Text: Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), CC BY 4.0.