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A PAINTING FROM THE IMPEY ALBUM:
A COPPERSMITH BARBET (MEGALAIMA HAEMACEPHALA) ON A FLOWERING
STAR FRUIT TREE BRANCH (AVERRHOA CARAMBOLA)
BY SHEIK ZAYN AL-DIN, PATNA, DATED 1782
Pencil, pen, ink, and watercolor with gum arabic heightened with touches of white on
English paper watermarked, “J Whatman”; Inscribed in the bottom left corner: In the
Collection of Lady Impey Calcutta / Painted by (Zayn al-Din) Native of Patna 1782;
numbered 140 in pencil in the upper left corner; further inscribed in pencil in the lower left
of the outer margin: Averrhoa Carambola L; also inscribed in pencil in the bottom center
of the outer margin Yellow Throated Barbet; verso stamped with Sir Elijah Impey’s seal.

Folio: 24 3/4 x 36 7/8 in. (62.9 x 93.7 cm)

$180,000 - 220,000
Like most Europeans in India during the 18th century, Sir Elijah, the Chief Justice of
Bengal from 1774 to 1782, and his wife Lady Impey, were fascinated and intrigued by the
artistic traditions. Lady Impey employed three painters from Patna, three hundred miles
up the river from Calcutta, who produced a set of 326 studies of the flora and fauna from
the Impeys’ private zoo, which included birds, fish, reptiles, mammals, and flowers. This
painting of the Coppersmith Barbet is one of the studies from the Impey album, painted
by the senior-most painter Sheikh Zayn al-Din.

The study is an amalgamation of the foreign company style and the local Mughal
tradition. The painters employed by Impey were well-versed in the Mughal style, and
their subsequent training in the company style birthed this remarkable tradition that
integrated the scientific accuracy of European natural history paintings with the gem-like
characteristics of Indian miniatures. This fusion produced some of the best works from
the Company school, and this study exemplifies the preeminent work of Sheikh Zayn
al-Din whose mastery is embedded in his varied brushwork, his sense of design, and the
ability to encapsulate the essence of his subject on paper.

The attention to detail in rendering of the coppersmith barbet, with its plump body, short
neck, large head, and short tail, and the bushy and heavily branched carambola tree
evinces the scientific fidelity of the painter. Combining the study of animals from real life
at the zoo with the perceptive knowledge of Mughal portraiture produced the naturalistic
and vivid paintings in the Impey album. This body of work would consequently alter
the course of European natural history painting, which continued to perpetuate the
convention of using stuffed animal specimens for illustrations. The Impeys brought their
collection back to London in 1783, where it proved to be of considerable scientific and
artistic interest.

Examples of these paintings are present in the Wellcome Institute of London, the
Radcliffe Science Library at Oxford, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London,
the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Binney Collection at the San Diego Museum,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and numerous private collections. A group from the
collection of the 18th Earl of Derby were sold by Christie’s, London, 17 June 1998, lots
170-3. A fruit bat from the album was sold by Bonhams, London, 8 April 2014, lot 292.

Published
Simon Ray Ltd, Indian & Islamic Works of Art, London, 2007, no.61.

Provenance
Sir Elijah and Lady Impey (1732-1809)
Phillips, London, 21 May 1810
Private UK Collection
Simon Ray Ltd, London, 16 October 2006

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