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Lot Essay
The Ramayana series from which the present painting belongs is named for its patrons, Sir Elijah Impey (1732-1806), the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Calcutta from 1774-1790, and his wife Lady Mary Impey (1749-1818) a British natural historian. The couple is most remembered for their commission of a collection of large company school paintings of birds, animals, and native plants, now revered as the Impey Album. The present series, along with similarly composed Ragamala and Razmnama manuscripts, showcases their broader interest in the arts of Bengal, diverting from the company school aesthetic they are most associated with, in favor of a more regional style of folk painting in Murshidabad.
The style, color palette and composition of the Impey Ramayana series mirrors contemporaneous pata scrolls from Bengal, which uses a registered format as a narrative device for epics such as the Ramayana and Bhagavata Purana. Works of this style were quite unusual commissions for foreigners, who by their own standards considered the Mughal and Company school ateliers more refined. Nevertheless, the series is celebrated for its vivid color scheme, bold execution and stylized figures.
The artists of this splendid series creatively use geographic features, such as the mountain range and river stream to create narrative registers within the painting. In the upper register, Rama and Sita kneel before an ascetic, while Lakshmana respectfully stands behind them. In the lower register, the boatman Kevat washes Rama’s feet before ferrying the trio across the Ganges. His boat, with a tiger figurehead, awaits them in the foreground river.
The provenance of this painting is verified by the seal of Sir Elijah Impey stamped on the verso. The series, which consisted of 44 paintings, was later acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps Bt (1792-1872). The folios were much later dispersed at auction at Sotheby’s London, 26 November 1968. Further pages from this series are at the British Library (acc. no. Add.Or.5725), Los Angeles Country Museum of Art (acc. no. M.72.88.3), and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (acc. no. 2011.22).
The style, color palette and composition of the Impey Ramayana series mirrors contemporaneous pata scrolls from Bengal, which uses a registered format as a narrative device for epics such as the Ramayana and Bhagavata Purana. Works of this style were quite unusual commissions for foreigners, who by their own standards considered the Mughal and Company school ateliers more refined. Nevertheless, the series is celebrated for its vivid color scheme, bold execution and stylized figures.
The artists of this splendid series creatively use geographic features, such as the mountain range and river stream to create narrative registers within the painting. In the upper register, Rama and Sita kneel before an ascetic, while Lakshmana respectfully stands behind them. In the lower register, the boatman Kevat washes Rama’s feet before ferrying the trio across the Ganges. His boat, with a tiger figurehead, awaits them in the foreground river.
The provenance of this painting is verified by the seal of Sir Elijah Impey stamped on the verso. The series, which consisted of 44 paintings, was later acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps Bt (1792-1872). The folios were much later dispersed at auction at Sotheby’s London, 26 November 1968. Further pages from this series are at the British Library (acc. no. Add.Or.5725), Los Angeles Country Museum of Art (acc. no. M.72.88.3), and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (acc. no. 2011.22).