COMPANY SCHOOL (CIRCA 1770)LANDSCAPE WITH A EUROPEAN RESIDENCE NEAR MURSHIDABAD OR KASIMBAZAR; LANDSCAPE WITH A EUROPEAN Bodycolour on paper38.5 x 53.8cm (15 x 21in.)Provenance:Hartnoll and Eyre, London, where purchased by the present owner, 1972Exhibited:New York, The American Federation of Arts, Room for Wonder, Indian Painting during the British Period 1760-1880, April 1978 - February 1979, cat. nos. 3a and 3b, exhib no.78Murshidabad was a wealthy city and during the second half of the 18th Century there was an increasing number of British residents living there and in the neighbourhood. In 1767 barracks for British troops were built at Berhampore, six miles to the south and after 1775 a Resident was appointed to the Nawab's Durbar. British inhabitants were attracted to Murshidabad because of its location on the Bhagirathi River which linked Calcutta to the main channel of the Ganges. Boats would stop at Murshidabad to take on fresh provisions and water. The river was the main highway from Calcutta to Upper India until the mid-19th century and the arrival of the railways. As patronage by Indian society diminished the court artists looked for new a source of livelihood amongst the large number of British living there. These pair of works depict an extensive European residence from opposite vantage points. The English gentleman who commissioned these evidently wished the artist to depict not just his house, but his whole establishment including its pavilions, outbuildings, walled establishments, trees, boats, indoor and outdoor servants, crews, guards and soldiers with their Hindu shrines and Muslim mosques. He is portrayed in the second one, painted reclining in his palanquin, while reading a book in front of his splendid establishment.
Bodycolour on paper

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