Lot 68: A COMPANY SCHOOL WATERCOLOUR ILLUSTRATION/PAINTING OF A BIRD, EAST INDIA, 19TH CENTURY

This nineteenth-century natural history illustration is executed in watercolor and bodycolor on a heavy cream wove paper. The work is representative of the Company School style, created by Indian artists for British patrons during the mid-1800s. The subject is a bird, possibly a species of woodswallow or flycatcher, depicted with anatomical precision and perched on a single, diagonally oriented branch. The artist has employed fine brushwork to define individual feathers, with touches of opaque bodycolor used to highlight the blue beak and the yellow ring of the eye.

29 by 19cm