Picture Details
Illustration of Sandalwood, from the William Roxburgh Collection. Watercolour on paper.
Partner:
Kew GardensImage reference:
ILLUS57.01/91.0ROXOrigin:
IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, 1790-1813Size:
546 x 376 mmDescription:
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The East India Company employed small groups of Indian artists at a number of institutions such as the Calcutta and Saharanpur Gardens, and also the Barrackpore Menagerie. William Roxburgh (1751-1815) the Scottish scientist was fortunate in working with a highly skilled team at the Calcutta Gardens. A visitor to Calcutta in 1810 remarked on the drawings "they are the most beautiful and correct delineations of flowers I ever saw. Indeed the Hindoos [sic] excel in all minute works of this kind." Traditionally Indian artists were seldom bettered at miniature painting, a distinct advantage when European botanists required life-size drawings of small flowers, such as those of the Sandalwood. Their skill in representing complex scientific subjects with remarkable clarity is also apparent here in the delicately painted studies of dissected fruit and flowers.
