Page 23 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

20 ART AND CRAFTS

Impey. She came to India in 1774,
established a Zoo and employed local
artists to paint the birds and animals. The
majority of these artists were Muslims
and non-Bengalis, but names of some
Hindu artists belonging to the Kayastha
community were also available. Artists
Pir Bux, Sheikh Zainuddin, Ramadas,
Bhabani Das etc. showed considerable
skill in this style. Nevertheless, the
greatest painter of this school was
undoubtedly the Bengali artist Shaykh
Muhammad Amir from Karraya, who
was thought to be active between 1840
and 1850 (fig.1.7). Patronized by his
employer Thomas Halroyed he painted
fig. 1.7 Company the daily life of the Europeans, their pets, houses, carriages and households with great
School painting by dexterity. He also had no equal in painting portraits of the Europeans and the Indians.
Bengali artist Shaykh Shaykh Amir’s skill was sometimes compared to that of the famous maestro Mansur
Muhammad Amir of of the court of Emperor Jahangir. His landscapes and animal paintings were thought
Karraya, gouache on to be no inferior to his European contemporaries. 22
paper, Kolkata c. 1840-
50 after Arts of India The British started to take different perspectives and tactics to sustain colonial
1550-1990, Victoria and domination after India came under direct British administrative rule. Schemes were
Albert Museum, 1990 also taken to deal with India’s local art. Company Art was generally confined to
individual practices. The British planned to give art an institutional shape and decided
to establish art schools in India in the western fashion. Art education in India was
limited to clan or family traditions and Indian art entered a new era through the
introduction of art education at an institutional level. Thus, Indian art history observed
the end of the middle ages and the beginning of the modern age in the field of art.
It may be mentioned, in this context, that 39 examples of paintings done more or less
in the Company style are preserved in the National Museum in Dhaka. Done in
watercolor on handmade paper these paintings depict the Eid and Muharram
processions in Dhaka during the British regime. As the paintings differ substantially
in style among themselves it may be assumed that there is less possibility of them
being done by one particular artist. However, as the name Alam Musabbir was
attributed to all these paintings, they have come to be known as the works by that
artist. It is widely believed that these paintings of processions were executed at the
patronization of Nusrat Jung, the Nayeb Nazir of the Nimtali palace of Dhaka at the
beginning of the nineteenth century (pl.1.1).
Up to the end of the eighteenth century the British and other Europeans were the
principal patrons of Company Art. The art, which originated to satisfy the taste and