Calcutta School (ca. 1777–1782)

Drawing by Shaikh Zayn al-Din in pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor with gum arabic, heightened with body color on paper (18 1/8 x 26 1/2 in.; 463 x 673 mm), entitled Red-whiskered bulbul, pycontus jocosus,  inscribed "Fine Ear | In the Collection of Lady Impey in Calcutta | Painted by [Shaikh Zayn al-din] Native of Patna 1777," further inscribed in Persian and numbered "20"; light browning. Floated on a linen mat, glazed, and framed.  

Mary Reade, Lady Impey (1749–1818)

A magnificent drawing by the Muslim artist Shaikh Zayn-al-Din commissioned by Mary, Lady Impey, whose husband was the Chief justice of Bengal from 1774 to 1782. Lady Impey joined Sir Elijah Impey in Calcutta in 1777. Enchanted by the flora and fauna in her new surroundings, she assembled a private menagerie of exotic animals and birds at their estate and employed three Indian artists to paint them from life.

The most senior of these was the accomplished Shaikh Zayn-al Din; the other two were Hindus, Bhawani Das and his brother Ram Das, who joined Zayn-al-Din.  All three were trained in the Mughal tradition of the court painters and signed themselves "Natives of Patna."

The Impeys were the first patrons of natural history painting in India and their collection is still considered the most important ever compiled. The present watercolor comes from a group that totaled 326 which the Impeys brought back to England in 1783. The collection was dispersed at auction in 1810. Examples from the collection can be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Radcliffe Science Museum at Oxford, the Wellcome Institute, London, and the Binney Collection in San Diego.