Mary, Lady Impey, wife of the Chief Justice Sir Elijah Impey, between 1777 and 1782 commissioned many paintings that formed a part of a great collection of natural history studies at Calcutta. The Impeys shared the keen scholarly curiosity about India which prevailed among the circle of the Governor-General Warren Hastings, and they also assembled an extensive aviary and menagerie at their Calcutta home.

Lady Impey seems to have taken the lead in commissioning meticulous, often life-sized pictures of their birds and animals from three Mughal-trained artists: SHAIKH ZAIN UD-DIN, BHAWANI DAS and RAM DAS. By the time the Impeys left India in 1783, these artists had produced over two hundred works on large sheets of imported English paper, mainly of birds though also of animals, fish and reptiles.

The most prolific of these painters was Shaikh Zain ud-Din, and all but one of the works shown here are by him. At their best they emulate, on a greatly enlarged scale, the refinement of 17th century Mughal natural history paintings. In their assimilation of European conventions they are also outstanding forerunners of the Company style, practised by Indian artists for British and other European patrons well into the 19th century.


Image:
Lady Impey giving instructions to her household staff, Calcutta, c.1775-1778, possibly by Shaikh Zain ud-Din.

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