Picture Details
Indigo flowers, watercolour on paper.
Partner:
Kew GardensImage reference:
ILLUS57.01/91.0WOrigin:
IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, c.1840Size:
389 x 242 mmDescription:
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This illustration, probably by an Indian artist, was from the private collection of Dr. Hugh Falconer (1808-1865), who was Superintendent at the Botanic Gardens in Calcutta. In 1843 Falconer published a catalogue of the plants growing at Calcutta, among which were fourteen species of Indigo, including this one, Indigofera tinctoria. European botanists frequently expressed their frustration at the botanical drawings produced by Indian artists working for the East India Company. The scientists claimed that the drawings were inaccurate and that the plants lacked depth on the page. Inaccurate or not, they were often painted with remarkable sensitivity and skilful use of colour. Today they provide a visual record of the antagonism between the traditional manner of decorative arts in India, and the increasingly strict standards in the field of Botany, brought to India by European scientists such as Falconer. In short, the East India Company drawings document the collaboration between practitioners of Eastern arts and Western science.
