Bhawani Das was a highly skilled Indian artist who lived and worked in the late 18th century during British colonial rule. He is best known for his highly realistic depictions of the flora and fauna of the area in watercolor, frequently preparing works commissioned by top British officials. His works provide important insights into the art of that time.
Bhawani Das’s artistic legacy has continued to be recognized today through major institutions and scholars paying attention to his work. Thus far, Bhawani Das’s works have been extensively studied and explored by museum curators in order to utilize them in exhibitions. Das is celebrated for his natural history studies and watercolors, which seamlessly synthesized traditional Indian precision with European empirical observation and scientific exactitude
Signature Works
The Great Indian Fruit Bat or Flying Fox (Pteropus giganteus) (Approximate Year of Creation: 1778–1782): Among the most recognized masterpieces from the Impey Album, this painting depicts a bat against a minimal backdrop and hyper-realistic anatomical features. The artist used a pigment containing iron to illustrate the bat’s wings. This picture, made by scanning X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, shows the application of lead white to accentuate the edges.
Chowta Dantnia (Bengal Yellowfin Seabream). The painting was created on commission from Lady Mary Impey, wife of Sir Elijah Impey, who held the position of Chief Justice of Bengal. She hired local Indian painters to represent the local flora and fauna in a detailed manner. It was sold at Christie’s, London on October 27, 2023, being created in 1783 and considered to be one of the earliest visuals of the species in Western science before its official naming by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton in 1822.
Oleander – This painting is from the collection of local amateur botanist Richard Cresswell (1815–1882), and it is one of the total 86 Indian works of art (mostly plant paintings) created at the beginning of the 19th century. The plants that are painted in this collection are believed to be helpful in Ayurvedic medicine, which is thought to be the oldest health practice in the world. In total, 17 out of the 86 pieces can be attributed to well-known masters of the art like Bhawani Das, Sheikh Zain al-Din, and Ram Das.
Themes
The theme of Naturalism in Das’s work is evident from the very precise documentation of the hundreds of ecosystems in India; the author depicts the texture of animal hair, feathers, scales, and plant parts with exact scientific precision.
Cultural and Artistic Fusion: Another theme to see in Das’s work is the fusion of Eastern and Western visual traditions seen in the combination of Mughal spatial awareness with a Western approach to color and texture and that of realism.
Isolation and Observation: Plants and animals in Das’s work are depicted against a solid white background, which accentuates their anatomy and aesthetic value as opposed to the decorativeness of royal interiors.
Artistic Journey
Starting Out in Painting: Bhawani Das was a gifted artist who pursued painting in the court representative art style of late Mughal and regional courts, most probably in Patna or Lucknow. He learnt the fine details of miniature painting.
Moving to Kolkata: After seeing the end of the royal patronage of Mughal courts, Das moved to Kolkata to look for work and began painting in several royal studios for the East India Company members.
Impey Album (1777–1783): This talented artist was working with some of the best painters, like Sheikh Zain-ud-Din and Ram Das, when he was hired by Sir Elijah Impey (the Chief Justice of Bengal) and his wife, Lady Mary Impey, to make paintings of exotic species from a private menagerie based in Kolkata and its private gardens.
Company School: Due to making use of different European materials (including large paper and watercolor washes), Das was able to set the trend and introduce the Company School style.
Awards and Recognition
While there were no official competitive art prizes in eighteenth-century India, Bhawani Das was among the top artists working at the court level and was commissioned by high-ranking British officials. Numerous works signed and attributed to him can be found in prestigious collections around the globe, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the Yale Center for British Art. His pieces were also exhibited in the landmark international exhibition named Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company (Wallace Collection, London, 2019–2020). Furthermore, the artist’s works attained record prices at Bonhams auctions.