Revellers intoxicated and incapable during a visit to a bhang wallah. Jaipur - c1860
Medium: Opaque watercolour with gold on wasli
This miniature painting provides a rare example of social satire in comparison to the norm of deities, religious and/or mythological scenes, portraits of rulers and courtiers. At an open-fronted stall a bhang wallah with female assistant sieving leaf from the mixture prepares the hallucinogenic drink made from cannabis. One intoxicated reveller is so high as to be unaware of the dog licking his face - a particularly repulsive sight to the intended viewer given that dogs are reviled in India by both Hidus and Muslims. The eager customers represent orthodox Hindus and Muslims with their fine clothes and expensive weapons but also the unorthodox represented by two ascetic holy men who could be either fakirs (Sufi ascetics) or sadhus (Hindu ascetics).
Source: indianminiaturepaintings.co.uk
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A syce (groom) stands with an officer's horse from the 8th Madras Light Cavalry, a background with bare rocky landscape and fort at Trichinoply - c1840
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Medium: Opaque water colour on paper
In 1838 the 8th Madras Light Cavalry regiment was called to Calcutta and this probably explains the painting's being in the manner of Shaikh Muhammad Amir, the leading exponent of the Anglo-Indian style there. Common to some of Shaikh Muhammad Amir's productions are the distinctively curved shadows cast by horse and groom and similar silhouette-like tufts and blades of grass bordering lower edge. However this painting is more freely painted than were his and lacks his trademark miniaturistic hyper-realism not to mention his remarkable technical expertise. However, he was known to have employed artists to work in his style, and undoubtedly other individual artists followed suit with growth in demand amongst the many wealthy British residents and vistors to Calcutta
Source: indianminiaturepaintings.co.uk
Staff member from a wealthy European household, Calcutta (Kolkata), studio of Shaikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya - c1840
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Medium: Watercolour with white pigment on paper
Shaikh Muhammad Amir and artists employed at his studio to work in the same style are considered to have provided the high point in Anglo-Indian or 'Company School' painting produced in the north-eastern provinces of India during the late 18th to mid-19th centuries. He was prolific in producing paintings for the newly wealthy British inhabitants of Calcutta who were eager to commssion paintings often depicting houses and places of leisure, sometimes including every member of their domestic staff and servants, horses and pets.
Source: indianminiaturepaintings.co.uk
Milk woman from a wealthy European household, Calcutta (Kolkata), studio of Shaikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya - c1840
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Medium: Watercolour with white pigment on paper
Shaikh Muhammad Amir and artists employed at his studio to work in the same style are considered to have provided the high point in Anglo-Indian or 'Company School' painting produced in the north-eastern provinces of India during the late 18th to mid-19th centuries. He was prolific in producing paintings for the newly wealthy British inhabitants of Calcutta who were eager to commssion paintings often depicting their houses and places of leisure, sometimes including every member of their domestic staff and servants, horses and pets.
Source: indianminiaturepaintings.co.uk
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