Picture Details
Sugar cane, watercolour and pencil on paper.
Partner:
Kew GardensImage reference:
ILLUS200.0/76.1ROXOrigin:
IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, 1790-1812Donor / Date:
1859Size:
475 x 300 mmDescription:
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This painting demonstrates the ability of Indian artists to reproduce a difficult subject with remarkable clarity, and levitating what is essentially a scientific illustration to an artwork of aesthetic beauty. The delicate hairs of the plant are not linework but painted by a long and very fine brush. The art of miniature painting had long since been established in India under the successive Mughal dynasties, and from the earliest travels of the Honourable East India Company had exchanged techniques and images with the Europeans. Here East meets West with an Indian artist using English paper and paints, under the direction of a Scottish botanist.
