A Page from the Fraser Album: A Trooper of Skinner's Horse

The Fraser Album was a superb collection of watercolors commissioned by the brothers William Fraser (1784-1835) and James B. Fraser (1783-1856) in the early nineteenth century in India. William who was in the employ of the English East India Company, served in a number of posts, from his arrival in Bengal in 1799 to his sudden and untimely death in Delhi in 1835, while his brother James, who was an amateur artist and author and joined him in India in 1814 and accompanied him on some of his travels.

The Fraser Album pictures are amongst the earliest of the Company School works, a style that came into vogue in the early nineteenth century in India. The patrons of this style were employees of the various European trading entities, particularly the English East India Company, who were engaged in commerce in India during this period. They commissioned Indian artists to paint vignettes of everyday life – local costumes and customs, architectural monuments, scenes of natural beauty – as a record of their novel experiences in the subcontinent. Local artists in turn welcomed this foreign patronage and were induced to affect a degree of realism and perspective in their work, creating a new style of painting that came to be known as the Company Style. 

The illustrations in the Fraser Album capture their subjects and surroundings in exquisite detail and the corresponding experiences are faithfully recorded by both brothers in their journals, creating a vivid record of the time. More than one artist was employed to produce the entire group of nearly a hundred drawings. The Album is also significant as it was produced in the Delhi region, an area where European presence and influence had been limited, and the paintings bear a distinct regional flavor, distinguishable from the Calcutta school where the finest Company pictures thus far had been created. In the words of Mildred Archer and Toby Falk, “technically these drawings surpass all other known Company pictures for their delicate realism, characterization and subtle composition of groups.” (Archer and Falk, India Revealed: The Art and Adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-35, New York, London & Sydney, 1989, p. 40).

A number of subjects in the Album, including the present lot, were members of the private regiment of Colonel James Skinner, a British military adventurer in India who was of Anglo-Indian descent. Skinner who pursued a lavish lifestyle in the manner of Indian princes and was famous for his eccentric character, raised a regiment of irregular cavalry known as ‘Skinner's Horse’ at his estate at Hansi, northwest of Delhi. His troops were highly trained and skilled and earned fame as the best light cavalry regiment of that time. Skinner had their uniforms specially designed, the signature colors being bright yellow and scarlet, leading to the moniker, ‘The Yellow Boys.’ 

The trooper in the present work is depicted in an informal manner, dressed not in his uniform but in a light gray dhoti. He is shown holding a double-pointed spear, shield and sword, placing him within context. The vivid red color of his turban contrasts sharply with the subtle color palette of the rest of the painting. The artist elegantly captures his subject’s strong features and taut, muscled body with its direct, frontal stance. Compare with other illustrations of troopers, see ibid. nos. 115 and 116; the latter sold in the sale of Important Indian Miniatures from the Paul F. Walter Collection, Sotheby’s New York, November 14, 2002, lot 52. For another illustration of a Skinner cavalryman attired in complete detail see ibid. no. 112.