Company School Art: A Tapestry of Castes, Costumes, and Culture in India

Company paintings tells about different castes, costumes and professions from the length and breadth of India become subjects of contemplation. Here a Vaishnavite man is depicted in a local textile. The marking on his head (tilaka) and arms point to his affiliations with Lord Vishnu. He is wearing beaded strings along with prominent religious marks, pointing to his higher status in society. The drapes of the attire and the bowl he holds in his hand show he is out for a religious purpose. Lifelike details based on the perspective study were integrated into scenes of this kind with an Indian subject. With the advent of British rule in India, a group of Western art patrons emerged who commissioned local Indian artists to create works with European aesthetics, thus giving rise to a recognizable genre called the Company Paintings. This hybrid style blended Indo-European sensibilities, reflecting influences from the Indian miniature painting traditions of Rajput-Mughal descent, western style ethnographic and nature studies. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, enterprising artists had developed template styles that they would reproduce for tourists passing through India. The simpler compositions eventually gave way to a variety of scenes depicting monuments, festivals, castes and costumes of the natives from the subcontinent. The format of the works has been usually small as it was carried during travels in folios and albums. Typically made on paper, select pieces were known to have been made on ivory- a lavish commission. Different cities around India with sizable British presence developed their unique styles which are acquainted by the honed eye. With the coming of photography in the 1840s Company Paintings suffered a decline.