A man selling and making bows

One of a suite of 11 original unsigned watercolors, evidently by a native artist. Man seated on ground, making bows that he will sell. During the late 1700s, the British East India Company expanded its purview in South Asia, bringing its employees from England to establish new lives in India. As expats traveled throughout the region and encountered unfamiliar flora and fauna, stunning ancient monuments, and new peoples and customs, they strove to capture these sights to send or take home as souvenirs. Yet unlike modern tourists with camera phones, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century travelers hired Indian painters to fulfill the same aims. The works produced by these commercial artists often appear in a hybrid of European, Mughal, and regional styles, known collectively as “Company” paintings. While some artists adapted subjects originally made for local consumption as foreign demand rose, others maintained a set repertoire catered to travelers. Among the latter, the paintings preserve a cultural landscape of artisanal traditions and specialized crafts, like the production of bows and arrows, which continued well into the age of firearms. One of a suite of 11 original unsigned watercolors, evidently by a native artist. Man seated on ground, making bows that he will sell. During the late 1700s, the British East India Company expanded its purview in South Asia, bringing its employees from England to establish new lives in India. As expats traveled throughout the region and encountered unfamiliar flora and fauna, stunning ancient monuments, and new peoples and customs, they strove to capture these sights to send or take home as souvenirs. Yet unlike modern tourists with camera phones, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century travelers hired Indian painters to fulfill the same aims. The works produced by these commercial artists often appear in a hybrid of European, Mughal, and regional styles, known collectively as “Company” paintings. While some artists adapted subjects originally made for local consumption as foreign demand rose, others maintained a set repertoire catered to travelers. Among the latter, the paintings preserve a cultural landscape of artisanal traditions and specialized crafts, like the production of bows and arrows, which continued well into the age of firearms. Unbound, mounted on beige boards; slightly soiled, in red cloth slipcase, green leather label stamped gold "Indian Seapoys and Tradesmen. Original Water Colors, c. 1810". London, Maggs, 1958.