Four illustrations of Plant Studies

Two of the works inscribed "Phurhud" and "Nicoliana Tabaccum" on the lower left respectively, the latter further identified as a tobacco plant in Bengali and Devanagari inscriptions on the lower right and also bearing the owner's initials "FJB" and the serial number 10 on the middle left.

Botanical studies are often considered the finest specimens of Company School painting. These albums were produced by Indian artists working under the supervision of enterprising European scientists and patrons who studied and wished to record the astounding variety of flora and fauna that they encountered for the first time in India. According to Stuart Cary Welch, the aesthetic success of these works may be credited to, “… the extraordinary sensitivity and miraculous technical expertise…” of the artists who were schooled in the earlier Mughal tradition, which was noteworthy for the precision and skill with which natural history subjects were rendered, see Indian Botanical Paintings, 1980, Introduction.

Prominent English patrons of Botanical paintings in India were Lady Mary Impey, wife of the Chief Justice of Bengal, Sir Josiah Impey, who resided in India from 1774 – 1782, and Dr. James Kerr (1738-1782) Company Surgeon in the Bengal Establishment, both of whom commissioned albums of plant specimens.

The present works no doubt belonged to similar albums, now dispersed. The varying degrees of refinement suggest the hand of different artists. Early paintings such as those in the Impey album bear traces of the Mughal inspired aesthetic and are characterized by sumptuous coloring and shading. The economy of color and line in the present illustrations dates them to a slightly later period.