Picture Details
Tamarind flowers and fruit. Watercolour, gouache and gum arabic on paper.
Partner:
Kew GardensImage reference:
ILLUS57.02/348.0ROXOrigin:
IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, 1790-1813Size:
525 x 365 mmDescription:
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The oldest botanical garden in India can be found at Calcutta, where the Scottish botanist, William Roxburgh (1751-1815), spent many years studying that country's flora, while working for the East India Company. Of the Tamarind he noted, "The tree is one of the largest in India, with a most extensive large, shady head, the bark dark-coloured and scabrous, the wood hard, very durable and most beautifully veined". Roxburgh employed local artists to paint the plants he studied. It is difficult to know if one artist or several worked on each illustration, but the approach is relatively similar throughout all of the 2,500 drawings that he eventually commissioned. Close attention was always paid to the economically important parts of the plant, in this instance the pod, and the flowers were frequently illustrated in dissection. Roxburgh allocated around 100 rupees a month to pay for the artists' wages and their materials.
