Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

A catalogue of the Ashmolean’s collection of Indian art by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield (published Oxford, 1987).

Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

Publications online: 143 objects

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  • Literature notes

    An East India Company factory has long been established at Patna on the river Ganges in the late 18th century, and as the British strengthened their hold over northern India from Bengal, the city became an important administrative centre. A number of Indian artists, deprived of their traditional patronage by the Mughal nobility, migrated elsewhere, while others came to settle in Patna and began selling series of vignettes of Indian life in a Europeanised style to foreign residents and visitors in search of the picturesque. Sewak Rām (c.1770-c.1830), one of the earliest of the migrants, came from Murshidabad and by the turn of the 19th century had a successful bazaar shop specialising in sets of paintings of Indian trades, costumes and festivals. He was a conscientious artist, working in a sombre palette attuned to the British taste, who did much to establish the pictorial conventions of the Patna school [see EAX.2030]. This study of a lapidary seated on a darī, cutting precious stones with a bow-drill, is one of two pictures attributed to Sewak Rām in the Museum’s collection.
  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaIndiaeast IndiaBihar Patna (probable place of creation)
    Date
    c. 1810
    Artist/maker
    attributed to Sewak Ram (c. 1770 - c. 1830) (artist)
    Material and technique
    gouache on paper
    Dimensions
    mount 40.6 x 27.9 cm (height x width)
    page 13.9 x 19.2 cm max. (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Purchased, 1966.
    Accession no.
    EA1966.232
  • Further reading

    Harle, J. C., and Andrew Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987), no. 95 on p. 84, pp. 83 & 86, illus. p. 85

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

    Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

    An East India Company factory has long been established at Patna on the river Ganges in the late 18th century, and as the British strengthened their hold over northern India from Bengal, the city became an important administrative centre. A number of Indian artists, deprived of their traditional patronage by the Mughal nobility, migrated elsewhere, while others came to settle in Patna and began selling series of vignettes of Indian life in a Europeanised style to foreign residents and visitors in search of the picturesque. Sewak Rām (c.1770-c.1830), one of the earliest of the migrants, came from Murshidabad and by the turn of the 19th century had a successful bazaar shop specialising in sets of paintings of Indian trades, costumes and festivals. He was a conscientious artist, working in a sombre palette attuned to the British taste, who did much to establish the pictorial conventions of the Patna school [see EAX.2030]. This study of a lapidary seated on a darī, cutting precious stones with a bow-drill, is one of two pictures attributed to Sewak Rām in the Museum’s collection.
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Object information may not accurately reflect the actual contents of the original publication, since our online objects contain current information held in our collections database. Click on 'buy this publication' to purchase printed versions of our online publications, where available, or contact the Jameel Study Centre to arrange access to books on our collections that are now out of print.

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