40 24th September 2011 art market
Eastern works provide a rare sight in regions
■ Indian watercolours and Lebanese boatman lend extra allure to Sussex sale
Alex Capon reports
SUPPLYING an Eastern flavour that gave an added kick to Gorringes’ (17.5% buyer’s premium) latest sale in Lewes, East Sussex were a number of pictures with a Middle Eastern or Indian connection.
The two-day auction on September
7-8 was a customary mammoth affair with more than 2000 lots, but among the 390-strong picture section were a 20th century Lebanese painting and a collection of five historical watercolours depicting Indian fauna that made a healthy contribution to the total. Overall, the sale made over £1m
hammer of which around £330,000 came from the pictures. The selling rate in this section was roughly 75 per cent. Bringing significant interest were the
five Indian watercolours which, offered separately, sold to four different London buyers. They all had provenance to Lady Mary
Impey, the wife of Sir Elijah Impey who was Chief Justice of Bengal from 1774 to 1783. The first European patron of Indian
natural history painters, and still considered the most important, Lady Mary was keenly interested in the exotic flora and fauna of the Sub-continent and kept a private zoo on her large estate near Calcutta. She commissioned three Indian artists
– the most senior of whom was Shaikh Zayn-al-Din (fl.1777-1782) who was trained in the Mughal tradition of the Persian court painters – to draw studies of rare species of birds, animals and plants. In all, 326 works were produced, of
which 197 were studies of birds, 76 of fish, 28 of reptiles, 17 of beasts and eight of flowers. Brought back to England when the
Impeys returned to London in 1783, the vivid details and vitality of colour of the works was greatly in advance of the European conventions at the time and these pictures became a significant
forerunner of the great 19th century ornithological illustrations, notably those of Audubon. After Sir Elijah’s death in 1809, the
Impey collection was auctioned off at Phillips of New Bond Street in May 1810, where the largest group of these natural history pictures were purchased by Archibald Impey (Sir Elijah’s natural son) whose widow later bequeathed them to the Linnean Society in 1855. Examples from the Impey series are
now also in other public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum and The Radcliffe Science Library in Oxford, although a smaller number have remained in private ownership and have appeared on the market from time to time. These five came from a local vendor
who had bought them in the 1980s from Colnaghi. The London dealers had staged
a show dedicated to Shaikh Zayn-al-Din, although, apparently, these five particular works had not been exhibited because two were unsigned and three were by another artist commissioned by Lady Impey. The most valuable amongst them was
a depiction of a Burmese or Chestnut- backed Shrike (Lanius collurioides) perched on an oleander branch. Although unsigned, the 22 x 16½in
(56 x 42cm) pencil, pen and ink, and watercolour study heightened with touches of white, was judged to have the quality and precision associated with Shaikh Zayn-al-Din himself and it was attributed to the artist in the catalogue. The paper was laid down on a remnant
of the artist’s original wash-line mount and, despite some scattered small dirt marks, it was in generally good condition. Estimated at £10,000-15,000, it was knocked down on top estimate – a
Right: study of Burmese or Chestnut-backed Shrike on an oleander branch attributed to Shaikh Zayn-al-Din – £15,000 at Gorringes.
Below: Boatman before a Fortress by Moustapha Farroukh – £15,000 at the same Lewes sale.
useful contribution to the total although larger signed examples have made over double this figure on the small number of occasions they have appeared, including a couple of watercolours that sold at the Graham Arader sale at Sotheby’s New York in June 2009. The other unsigned watercolour was
also attributed to Zayn-al-Din, although the picture showed only a flowering cactus (Cereus hildmannianus) and no bird. With some unfortunate crease- marks, including one running into the flower of the cactus, it sold at a mid- estimate £5000. The other three watercolours from the
collection were depictions of river fish by Bhawani Das (fl.1778-1782), one of the two other artists who worked alongside Shaikh Zayn-al-Din. Signed in Persian, the three 9½ x 15¼in
(24 x 13cm) studies were estimated at £3000-5000 apiece and made £4600, £6500 and £7500 – the variations in species, the level of detail and condition accounting for the price differentials. The painting by Beirut-born
Moustapha Farroukh (1901-1957) was a signed 16in x 2ft (41 x 61cm) oil on canvas entitled Boatman before a Fortress. Farroukh has been described by
supporters as the outstanding Lebanese artist of his generation. He was part of an important group of
artists who came to prominence under the French Mandate (1920-1943) and who were keen to promote what they saw as particularly Lebanese style of painting, in
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