Description

Two paintings from an album of occupations produced by the Company School in Patna around 1840. Dyers depicts two craftsmen engaged in successive stages of preparing and colouring cloth. One pours dye over fabric stretched across a raised frame while the other works material by hand in a basin. Earthenware vessels surround the figures, and lengths of cloth hang above beside a striking finished textile in red and green.

Butter Churner presents a single craftsman operating a rope-driven wooden churn set within a large earthenware vessel. His carefully observed stance and gesture clearly convey the mechanical action of the process. The spare backgrounds concentrate attention on the figures, their tools, and their specialized methods of work.

Together, the paintings exemplify the documentary character of Patna Company painting, combining precise observation of local trades with delicate modelling, restrained colour, and English inscriptions intended to identify each vocation for the album’s original audience.

Condition

Both sheets show age-related toning, staining, creasing, and surface undulation. Dyers retains its historically clipped corners and has some fading; Butter Churner has more pronounced creasing and scattered spotting. The colours and compositions remain clear. Condition is based on photographs and should be confirmed by direct examination.

Provenance

Acquired from the UK art trade, 2000s.

References

Archer, Mildred. Company Drawings in the India Office Library. London: HMSO, 1972.

Archer, Mildred, and Graham Parlett. Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period. London: V&A in association with Mapin, 1992.

Bayly, C. A. Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Mitter, Partha. Much Maligned Monsters: A History of European Reactions to Indian Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Christie’s. “An Album of Indian Watercolours Including 74 Watercolours of Indian Men and Women Engaged in Various Occupations.” Patna School, c. 1830. https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-3045894

Christie’s. “An Album of Thirty Watercolours Depicting Trades and Scenes from Everyday Life in India.” Patna School, c. 1830–40. https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-1862383

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