>Johnbod at 17:30, 20 August 2020

2020-08-20T17:30:45Z

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[[file:Sheikh Zain ud-Din - Indian Roller on Sandalwood.jpg|thumb|''Indian Roller on Sandalwood'' by Zain ud-Din, now in the collection of the [[Minneapolis Institute of Art]] ]]

The Impey Album was a collection of paintings commissioned by [[Elijah Impey]] (1732–1809) and his wife [[Mary Impey|Mary, née Reade]] (1749–1818), of the animals in their [[menagerie]] in Calcutta (now [[Kolkata]]), India, where Elijah was chief justice of the Supreme Court.<ref name="BBC-50542353">{{cite web |title=The forgotten Indian artists of British India |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-50542353 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |accessdate=30 November 2019 |date=30 November 2019}}</ref>

Between 1777 and 1782,<ref name="Ashmolean">{{Cite web |url=http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/6980/10198 |title=Lady Impey’s Indian Bird Paintings |date=2013 |publisher=[[Ashmolean Museum]] |access-date=2016-11-23}}</ref> the Impeys hired local artists to paint the various birds, animals and native plants, life-sized where possible, and their natural surroundings. The collection, often known as the Impey Album, is an important example of [[Company style]] painting. The three artists who are known were Sheikh Zain ud-Din,<ref>Also known as Sheikh Zain al-Din</ref> Bhawani Das, and Ram Das.<ref name="Ekhtiar">{{Cite book|year=2011|editor=Ekhtiar, Maryam D.|title=Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum|location=New York|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vO761l9dgZwC&pg=PA401 401]|isbn=978-1-58839-434-7}}</ref> More than half the over 300 paintings<ref name="Ekhtiar" /> were of birds.

Mary also kept extensive notes about habitat and behaviour, which were of great use to later biologists such as [[John Latham (ornithologist)|John Latham]] in his work on Indian birds.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

The collection was dispersed in an auction in 1810, and several pieces are in various museums including the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York,<ref name="Ekhtiar" /> with three in the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] in London,<ref>{{Cite web|title=V&A collections database: Impey|publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/?limit=15&narrow=1&q=Impey&commit=Search&after-adbc=AD&before-adbc=AD&category%5B%5D=1543&offset=0&slug=0}}</ref> and eighteen in the [[Radcliffe Science Library]] of the [[University of Oxford]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bsecs.org.uk/criticks-reviews/lady-impeys-indian-bird-paintings/|title=Review of 'Lady Impey’s Indian Bird Paintings'|last=|first=|date=24 February 2013|website=|publisher=British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies|author=Cannon-Brookes, Caroline|accessdate=30 November 2019}}</ref>

The twelve pictures (eleven by Zain ud-Din) given to the Radcliffe Science Library are now on loan to the [[Ashmolean Museum]] in Oxford,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum|last=Harle|first=James C.|publisher=Ashmolean Museum |year=1987|isbn=9780907849520 |location=Oxford |pages=84 }}</ref> and between October 2012 and April 2013 were exhibited at the Ashmolean as part of an exhibition entitled '''Lady Impey's Indian Bird Paintings'''.<ref name="Ashmolean" />

An exhibition, '''Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company''', which opened in December 2019 at the [[Wallace Collection]] in London reunited about 30 paintings from the album.<ref name="BBC-50542353" /><ref name="Jones">{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Jonathan |title=Forgotten Masters review – the natural history geniuses robbed by the British empire |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/dec/03/forgotten-masters-review-the-natural-history-geniuses-robbed-by-the-british-empire |website=The Guardian |accessdate=4 December 2019 |date=3 December 2019}}</ref><ref name="WC">{{cite web |title=Exhibition - Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company |url=https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/exhibition-forgotten-masters-indian-painting-for-the-east-india-company/ |publisher=[[Wallace Collection]] |accessdate=30 November 2019 |language=en}}</ref> It was scheduled to run until April 2020,<ref name="WC" /> but like many such events was curtailed by the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom|COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref name="COVID">{{cite web |title=An update from the Wallace Collection |url=https://www.wallacecollection.org/an-update-from-the-wallace-collection/ |publisher=Wallace Collection |accessdate=21 April 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Commons category}}

{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Watercolor paintings]]
[[Category:Birds in art]]
[[Category:Indian paintings]]

Impey Album - Revision history

>Johnbod at 17:30, 20 August 2020