"A Thrush and a Moth on an Orchid Branch," Shaikh Zain al-Din, 1778.
Almost nothing is known of Zain al-Din as a person, except he (presumedly a he) flourished from 1777-82. He moved from the city of Patna, India, to Calcutta, at the behest of Mary Impey, the wife of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Calcutta. (This was all while India was under British rule; the infamous days of the Raj.) She had quite a collection of native plants and animals in her private menagerie, and hired a number of local artists to paint them.
Zain al-Din's work is the best known; he skillfully combined the stylings of the Patna Qalam style of Mughal India with traditional Western European styles, creating what is now called the Company Style, which is very Western at a glance but still carries a unique sense of India to it. He signed his work in Persian, maintaining his Mughal identity in the face of colonialism; a small act of rebellion.
It's a crying shame we don't know more about him; he had a meticulous eye for detail, and worked with great precision. Obviously he was enormously talented and a diligent artist. But alas, the degradations of colonialism....
Happy Flower Friday!
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
#Art #ShaikhZainAl_Din #MughalArt #FlowerFriday #CompanyStyle #Colonialism #ArtOfTheRaj
