Asian Openbill Stork (Anastomus oscitans)
| Support Type: | Paper |
| Paint Type: | Watercolor |
| Current Location: | Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (Prints and Drawings; accession no. B2016.26; credit line: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund). |
| Location History: | 1781: Painted in Calcutta, India, for Lady Mary Impey and Sir Elijah Impey. 21 May 1810: Sold at the Impeys' sale at Phillips, London. Later: Owned by the Earls of Derby (their collector's stamp is on the sheet). 19 May 1998: Sold at Christie's, London (lot 91). Before 2016: Passed through private owners, possibly including the writer V. S. Naipaul, and then a London dealer, Clayton-Payne. 2016 to now: Acquired by the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (accession no. B2016.26, Paul Mellon Fund). |
The painting represents more than a carefully observed image of an Asian Openbill Stork. It reflects the meeting of Indian artistic traditions with the growing European interest in natural-history illustration in eighteenth-century colonial India. Shaykh Zayn al-Din had training in the Mughal miniature tradition, yet he adapted his technique to create highly naturalistic images of birds for Lady Impey. The large scale and detailed rendering make the bird appear almost like a scientific specimen while still retaining the delicacy and refinement of Indian painting. Andrew Clayton-Payne To me, the work represents the changing relationship between art, science and colonial collecting. The painting records the appearance of a real species with remarkable attention to detail, but it also reflects the interests and expectations of its British patron. It therefore stands as an example of cultural exchange, where Indian artistic knowledge and Mughal techniques were adapted to European natural-history practices.