Sheikh Zainuddin
Legendary Artist
Painting
Artworks
In Collections
Sheikh Zainuddin also rendered Shaikh Zain ud-Din or Shaykh Zayn al-Din was a painter from Patna who rose to prominence in Calcutta during the closing years of the 1770s. Trained in the Mughal tradition he worked from 1777 for Sir Elijah Impey and Lady Mary Impey and became the most prolific of the three painters who recorded the birds and animals of their private aviary and menagerie. His large studies of birds and plants set the precision of Mughal miniature painting against European conventions of natural history illustration and stand among the outstanding forerunners of the Company style. Almost nothing else of his life has been recorded and his reputation rests on the paintings themselves.