Rewa (Central India)
pigments on paper
Company Painting, Signed by the artist Avadh Sharan
A charming Company painting of a lancer captioned, “Rider Maartand Lancer.” Originally bound in an album. Lancers were a type of cavalryman who fought with lances, a pole weapon similar to a spike or spear. The first armoured troops in India were formed in 1914. In 1921, the Indian Army cavalry regiments were reorganised, and consolidated into twenty-one regiments. During this period, the Indian army was a separate organisation to the British Army. The main task of the Indian Army was to police the Indian Empire. During the first and second world wars, Indian troops served with distinction in France in 1940, Egypt, Libya, the Sudan, Abyssinia, Syria, Persia, Iraq, Malaya and Burma.
‘Company’ is a designation given to works by Indian artists painted in a mixed Indo-European style for the various East India companies. The foundation of this Indo-European style can be traced to the establishment of the first Portuguese trading posts. The British only counted as patrons in the 1760s following Clive’s victory at Plassey in 1757 . Patronage by the British in effect followed the flag. Princely states never directly under British control produced little company art and important centres like Delhi and Agra only became so after the British stabilised the reason in the early 1800s. Photography gradually replaced the genre in the 1840s but the style lingered on until the late nineteenth century. Barring minor regional variations, Company Style took the same form in all the centres. The favourite subjects were trades, costumes, crafts and festivals. Also popular were topographical pictures of contemporary India and exotic flora and fauna.
Painting Size (cms): 22 (H) x 18 (W)
Painting Size (inch): 8.5 (H) x 7 (L)
Framed Size (cms): 36.5 (H) x 32 (W)
Framed Size (inch): 14.5 (H) x 12.5 (L)
