Opaque watercolor painting on European paper of a man, possibly a business agent, and his wife

Opaque watercolor painting on European paper of a man, possibly a business agent, and his wife

Opaque watercolor painting on European paper of a man, possibly a business agent, and his wife. British India, 1830-1835

Opaque watercolour painting on European paper of a man, possibly a factor or business agent, wearing a turban and a dhoti with an angavastra (shawl) draped over his chest and shoulder; his feet are shod. On his forehead, neck, chest and upper arms are drawn Vaishnava namams (emblems). In his left hand he carries a bunch of keys and in his right some banknotes (?). His wife, wearing a sari and blouse, heavily bejewelled, carries a purse in her left hand.

Curator's comments
Dallapiccola 2010:
This painting is part of a set of ninety-two drawings depicting various Indian castes and occupations. An explanatory caption in English, written in a flowing early nineteenth-century hand, accompanies the majority of the drawings. Their repertoire covers a vast range of castes from the Telugu Brahmins to the Boyis and occupations from the astrologer to the jailer, interspersed with a colourful array of religious mendicants, acrobats and musicians. Of particular interest is a drawing of a private soldier (1884,0913,0.74), of the Private Grenadier Company of the 1st Madras Native Infantry, dressed in a uniform of the early 1820s, which helps to date the album to the early decades of the nineteenth century. This date is confirmed by the presence of a portrait of Serfoji II, raja of Thanjavur (r. 1798–1832), and his wife in this volume (1884,0913,0.44). In depicting the faces of his characters the artist consistently uses a ‘miniaturist technique’, i.e. minute dots of colour; the chin, forehead and nose areas are lightly shaded to suggest plasticity. The rendering of textiles, costumes and jewellery reveals a documentary precision and care for detail. The figures are slender and elegant rather than imposing, and the background is no longer monochrome: either the paper is left plain or in some cases a line of trees and shrubs dots the line of the horizon. The foreground is sometimes green, suggesting perhaps a meadow, or a very pale brownish wash but most frequently a dark, heavy looped shadow is attached to the feet of the figures.