Four European Gentlemen

Not on view

The genre of Company School Painting refers to works of art created in India between the eighteenth and mid-nineteenth century, which were commissioned by officers of the British East India Company and produced by Indian artists.


Typically, British officers were interested in depictions of the flora and fauna of India, but in other cases, artists experimented with portrayals of the Europeans themselves. This unfinished drawing is most likely a portrait depicting four real individuals. Although they are probably identified in the illegible Devangari inscription at upper left, their identities have been lost to time.

Four European Gentlemen, Pigments on paper

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