Tanjore School, circa 1830
Lot 314

Tanjore School, circa 1830

Studies of toddy drawers, tyremen and fishermen

Closed22 May 2008

Price Realised

GBP 4,000

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Tanjore School, circa 1830
Studies of toddy drawers, tyremen and fishermen
with inscription 'Tyre-man, Toddy Drawer/(Toddy) The juice of the Palmyra Tree, Fisherman' (lower centre)
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour with gum arabic, heightened with touches of bodycolour and gold, watermark 'WHATMAN'
13¾ x 20¼ in. (35 x 51.5 cm.)

Specialist note

The Tanjore School artists had migrated all over the south of India by the 1820s, and produced their best work in Madras and Vellore. They excelled in the depiction of textiles and volumetric figures. The albums produced normally showed three couples per page, as in the present watercolour.

An album of drawings, some showing three castes and occupations on each sheet, dated circa 1828, is in the India Office Library. Fig. 1 shows dancing girls and musicians, from this album (see M. Archer, Company Drawings in the India Offica Library, London, 1972, pp. 36). The present watercolour also relates to an album in the Victoria & Albert Museum (see M. Archer, Company Painting: Indian Paintings of the British Period, London, 1992, p. 60, nos. 26 (15 & 17)).