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Company painting of two entertainers with monkeys and goats 1780-86

Accession No.
2021.008
Date Created
1780-86
Gallery location
Not on public display
Department
Asian Art
Dimensions A
28.5 x 44cm
Media Category
Painting
Secondary Media Category
watercolour
Medium
Watercolour on paper
Place Created
Tanjore or Trichinopoly, India
Credit Line
Purchased 2021 with funds from the Henry and Amanda Bartlett Trust through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation

These delightful depictions of travelling entertainers and their performing animals were commissioned by the British East India Company from an unknown artist in either Tanjore (now Thanjavur) or neighbouring Trichinopoly (Tiruchirappalli) in southern India. They represent the genre of ‘Company painting’ which arose out of a desire by European employees of the various trading companies in India to record images of the country, commissioning artists to produce pictures of local interest. Produced by Indian artists in a mixed Indo-European style, Company paintings document a wide spectrum of India’s life and culture. Their crispness and clarity is testament to the suitability of miniature-painting techniques for recording everyday life before the introduction of mobile photography.
 

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