“Sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) on a custard apple branch (Annona reticulata)” is a naturalistic work of Company Painting by the esteemed artist Shaikh Zainuddin. The work displays a white cockatoo with a sulphur yellow crest, perched on a branch of a custard apple tree, bearing the fruit. The work is a unique display that showcases two items not native to South Asia, but culturally imported to the region. The cockatoo is an import from Australia or New Guinea, while the custard apple originates in the West Indies. The two were likely brought to the area by Mary Impey, with the former likely brought to India by mariners and traders, and the latter possibly brought over by Lady Impey for her botanical study. The work is extremely well done. The painting and shading of the cockatoo, the well portrayed leaves, and the fullness of the custard apple, all work together to create an incredibly well made composition.
The work was done by Shaikh Zainuddin, an artist who was known for his Naturalist art of Flora and Fauna. Zainuddin was originally from Patna, and was brought to Calcutta by Mary Impey, the natural historian and wife of Elijah Impey, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at Calcutta. He was brought alongside 2 other painters in order to paint Mary Impey’s menagerie of Indian and South East Asian birds and animals, and became the foremost painter in their retinue.
This painting belongs to the Company School is a hybrid Indo-European style that emerged in the late 18th century in British India. Mughal miniature traditions of centres like Patna adapted their techniques to suit European patrons of the East India Company. Commissioned in Calcutta 1777 by Lady Mary Impey for her private menagerie, the work by Shaikh Zain ud-Din blends precise Mughal-style detail and delicate brushwork with the scientific naturalism and plain backgrounds of English botanical illustration, producing large-scale, life-like studies of exotic birds and plants on imported European paper.
