- 173
Shaikh Zayn-al-din
Description
- Shaikh Zayn-al-din
- A pied bush chat, perched on a Bassia Clatifolia; A young sunbird, perched on a Reinwardtia Trigina; The Chinese Hwamei perched on a Bridelia; A red Breasted Flycatcher perched on a Alutilon indicum
- the first signed and inscribed l.l.: Grey Pudan / In the collection of Lady Impey at Calcutta / Painted by [Shaikh Zayn-al-din] Native of Patna 1778, further inscribed u.l.: 43; the second signed and inscribed l.l.: In the collection of Lady Impey in / Painted by [Shaikh Zayn-al-din] Native of Patna 1779; the third signed and inscribed l.l.: Waumee from China / In the collection of Lady Imprey at Calcutta painted by [Shaikh Zayn-al-din] Native of Patna 1780; the fourth signed and inscribed l.l.: In the collection of Lady Impey Calcutta / Painted by [Shaikh Zayn-al-din] Native of Patna 1780
- four, each watercolour over pencil with bodycolour, heightened with gum arabic
- 56.5 by 82 cm.; 22 1/4 by 32 in.; 60 by 80.5 cm.; 24 by 31 3/4 in.; 80.5 by 59 cm.; 31 3/4 by 23 1/4 in.; 57 by 82.5 cm.; 23 by 32 1/2 in.
Provenance
Catalogue Note
Shaikh Zayn-Al-Din originally hailed from Patna, 300 miles north of Calcutta, where he was trained as a Persian court painter in the naturalistic Mughal tradition. By 1774 he had moved to Calcutta where he found employment with Sir Elijah and Lady Impey. Sir Elijah was the Chief Justice of Bengal from 1774 to 1782. He and his wife were fascinated by the exotic flora and fauna of the sub-continent. On their estate at Calcutta they kept a private zoo, where they allowed Indian artists to paint their collection of rare birds and animals.
The present four watercolours are exceptionally rare. They come from a set of 326 by Shaikh Zayne-al-Din and his contemporaries, of which 197 were studies of birds, 76 of fish, 28 of reptiles, 17 beasts and 8 of flowers. When the Impey's returned to London in 1783, they showed their collection to ornithologists, who were quick to realise both its scientific and artistic merits. The set was considered significant for two reasons. Firstly, the bird drawings sometimes included the earliest depictions of Indian species and were used by subsequent experts to identify new species. Secondly, the birds were drawn from life 'perched not on the dead stump of European convention, but on a branch of the living tree which it frequented' (see J. P. Losty, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).
In 1809 Sir Elijah died and the collection was sold at Phillips, London on the 21 May 1810. Examples from the Impey series of natural history drawings are now in many public collections around the world including: the Linnaen Society, London, the Wellcome Institute, London, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the Radcliffe Library, Oxford and the Binney Collection, San Diego.