Indian Company School Tomb of Itimad-al-Daula, Agra – 19th-century watercolour painting

Indian Company Paintings

'Company School' refers to a variety of hybrid styles that came about through the influence of Western (especially British) patrons on Indian artists in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Finding traditional, stylised Indian painting not to their taste, these patrons began to collect works that, while incorporating traditional elements from Rajput and Mughal painting were given a more 'western' appearance through their use of perspective and rounded modelling, as opposed to the more decorative, 'flatter' styles that had gone before.

The Company style evolved to meet this demand: as many of their collectors worked for the East India Company, these paintings became associated with the name. Leading centres of the Company style were the main British settlements of Calcutta, Madras (Chennai), Delhi, Lucknow and Patna.

Europeans commissioned sets of images depicting festivals and scenes from Indian life, with people of different castes or trades being particular favourite subjects, as well as dancers and musicians. Collectors were particularly attracted to what were perceived to be the exotic customs, costumes and architecture of their adopted—and in many cases temporary—homeland. Paintings were mostly on paper, and most were small, reflecting the Indian miniature tradition and the intention that they would be kept in portfolios or albums.

Sadly there is little information about the identity of the numerous and flourishing ‘Company School’ artists; indeed Company School (or Kampani kalam) has been criticised as a term for defining a diverse body of works by the identity of its patrons rather than the talented Indian artists by which they are painted. These paintings resonate with fascinating and important questions and contradictions of cultural exchange.