Indian Company School Yellow Backed Chattering Lory Bird

An original c.1830 watercolour painting, Indian Company School, Yellow Backed Chattering Lory Bird.

A superb example of a Indian Company painting and part of an outstanding collection of Indian bird subjects that we have for sale.

As is typical for Company School style, the bird is painted with tremendously vivid opacity and fine detail.The vignette includes a tree trunk and a suggestion of the surrounding landscape, providing context and grounding the bird within the composition.

The colourful Chattering Lory (Lorius garrulus) is a forest-dwelling parrot endemic to North Maluku, Indonesia. It is likely that this species would have been found in menageries in 19th-century India. Calcutta in particular, being a seaport and opening to south and Southeast Asia, had a steady incoming stream of animals and was the location of a number of menageries and animal facilities. The natural historian Mary, Lady Impey established one such diverse collection and famously commissioned local artists to paint the flora and fauna.

On heavy wove paper.