Picture Details
Women grinding flour
Partner:
British LibraryImage reference:
BL.Add.Or.3964Origin:
Orissa, IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, c.1840Size:
279 x 222 mmDescription:
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This painting is from a set of Company drawings depicting servants, modes of transport, occupations and festivals. `Company painting' denotes a style of European-influenced art executed by Indian artists for European patrons in the 18th and 19th century. In the early 19th century, Company painting developed in the province of Orissa, centred in Cuttack, the capital, where British officers were stationed. Here rural women grind flour using a granite grindstone, the leaves of a dwarf coconut tree forming a canopy above. On the right is an altar for a tulasi or sacred basil plant, the auspicious bearer of good fortune.
