Art of Company style

Made by - Abhinav gupta

B.ARCH 3rd Semister

Company style

Company style or Company painting is a term for a hybrid Indo-European style of paintings made in India by Indian artists, many of whom worked for

European patrons in the British East India Company or other foreign Companies in the 18th

and 19th centuries. The style blended traditional elements from Rajput and Mughal painting with a more

Western treatment of perspective, volume and recession.

Most paintings were small, reflecting the Indian miniature tradition, but the natural history paintings of plants and birds were usually life size.

Women in a Brothel, Company style, Northern India, San Diego Museum of Art

Leading centres were the main British settlements of Calcutta, Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow , Patna and

the Maratha court of Thanjavur.

Subjects included portraits, landscapes and

views, and scenes of Indian people, dancers

and festivals. Series of figures of different castes or trades

were particular favourites, with an

emphasis on differences in costume; now they are

equally popular as subjects for analysis by

historians of the imperialist mentality.

Some of the major works include Mazhar Ali Khan, who

worked on Thomas Metcalfe's Delhi Book, was part of a dynasty of great

miniature artists, the patriarch of whom, Ghulam Ali Khan, had worked

for William Fraser on a similar commission known as the Fraser

Album, considered a masterpiece.

Delhi book Delhi Book or Delhie

Book titled Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi is a collection of paintings done in company style,

commissioned bySirThomas Metcalfe in

1844. It contains 120 paintings

by Indian artists, mainly by Mughal

painter, Mazhar Ali Khan.

The book was bought by the British Library and displayed in London

A panorama in 12 folds showing the procession of the Emperor Bahadur Shah ZafarII to celebrate the feast of the 'Id., 1843.

Fraser Album Fraser Album is a collection of paintings commissioned

by British Indian civil servant, William Fraser. It is considered among the greatest masterpieces of Indian

art. This work is an important documentation of the

Mughal empire towards its end. The artwork covered the life in Mughal era during the

time. It compendium has portraits of villagers, soldiers, holy men, dancing women, Afghan horse-dealers,

ascetics, village of Rania and Indian nobles. Some of the noted Mughal painters like Ghulam Ali

Khan, his brother Faiz, and family worked on the Fraser Album, after financial support from the Mughal

emperor diminished. The album works were painted between 1815 to 1819

William Fraser,

the creatorA folio from Fraser Album, ca 1815-181

Materiali. Paintings were mostly on paper, but sometimes

on ivory, especially those from Delhi. ii. They were mostly intended to be kept in portfolios or albums; the muraqqa or album was

very well established among Indian collectors, though usually including calligraphy as well, as

least in Muslim examples. iii. The style developed in the second half of the

18th century, and by the early nineteenth century production was at a considerable level, with

many of the cheaper paintings being copied by rote.

iv. By the 19th century many artists had shops to sell the work and workshops to produce it.

Some of the popular work of this era

A Common Indian Nightjar

The bird is executed with greatattention to detail—individualfeathers have been outlinedand painted with subtlegradations of color, andseveral shades of brown andblack are used to delineate itsbody markings.

The eye has a brightring around it and the legs aretextured with parallel linemarkings

Interior of a Mughal TombThe structure is a domedoctagonal chamber with anoculus. The dome itself hasbeen decorated with adiaper-pattern grid.

The walls below arearticulated with recessedarches and a marble dadoinlaid with red and greenfloral designs. The stonefloor has been decorated ina grid pattern with centralrosettes and a central insetthat resembles a rug

Bengal River Fish

The twin images of each side of the fish are placed by one another, the upper image in a dark gray tone and the lower one in a paler shade of the same color.

The mottled, scaly surface of the fish's body is carefully rendered, as are its mouth and eyes.

Bengali Woman with water-jar Black Stork in a Landscape