The Menagerie: Indian Paintings 1790-1842

From August 18 through September 26, 2005, The Drawing Room in East Hampton is pleased to present two concurrent exhibitions "Jack Youngerman: Recent Drawings" and "The Menagerie: Indian Paintings 1790-1842", collected by East India Company Patrons.

"The Menagerie" presents natural history paintings in gouache by painters from Lucknow and Calcutta trained in the Mughal Indo-Persian court tradition of miniature painting. This genre is called “company pictures,” because they were commissioned by British and French trading company officials who were passionate to record the wildlife in their new territory, India. In their menageries, aviaries or zoos the officers collected specimens for the artists to document. The intercultural exchange of ideas, techniques and subjects between native Indian artists, and their European patrons during the height of British colonialism is the subtext of this exhibition of birds and horses.

 See below for full press release and selected works.