A Demoiselle Crane (Grus Virgo) in a landscape, Company School, Lucknow, circa 1800

The Demoiselle Crane is the smallest of the cranes on the Indian subcontinent. It is a migratory bird and a winter visitor mainly to western India. The adult is distinguished by its black head and neck, grey crown, a white tuft behind the eye, and a short fine bill. Black tertial feathers project in a shallow arc beyond the body, giving it its distinctive shape. It is often found along sandbanks of large rivers and near the edges of reservoirs. The artist of the present painting has depicted the Demoiselle Crane in its natural habitat, near the banks of a water body.

For a comparable illustration of a White Stork depicted on a similar ground with jagged edges, see lot 17 in the present sale. For discussion on Company School painting in Lucknow in the late eighteenth century, see lots 3 and 5.