COMPANY SCHOOL, NORTH INDIA, MID-19TH CENTURY

Small format albums containing paintings of tradespeople and Indian rulers were popular subjects for Company School artists in the 19th century and most likely produced as souvenirs for affluent European visitors to India. The portrait of Raja Amani Singh of Aligarh (d.1857) helps date our album to the mid-19th century. Another Company School album of trades was sold Christie's South Kensington, 24 April 2013, lot 181. More recently an album of twenty-nine paintings of tradespeople and figures from South India sold at Bonhams, London, 23 May 2023, lot 205.