Picture Details
Tamarind, watercolour on paper.
Partner:
Kew GardensImage reference:
ILLUS57.02/348.0WOrigin:
IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, c.1810Donor / Date:
1867Size:
405 x 262 mmDescription:
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Little is known of the large collection of drawings on blue paper held in Kew's collections. The drawings were probably all executed by the same artist, possibly under the direction of Francis Hamilton (nee Buchanan), Superintendent of the Botanic Garden, Calcutta, 1814-15. With the individual parts of the plant arranged all on one plane, and the leaves, flowers and fruit rarely overlapping, the paintings have the appearance of pressed and mounted specimens. European botanists frequently expressed their frustration at the flat appearance of drawings they commissioned Indian artists to produce. Skilled painters were in great demand at the East India Company, work could be found privately too, painting birds, insects and flowers for European clients. The botanist Robert Wight named the genus Govindovia after the artist Govindoo, in recognition of the illustrations he provided for his great work Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientalis.
