{{Short description|Collection of Company style paintings commissioned by Elijah and Mary Impey}} [[file:Sheikh Zain ud-Din - Indian Roller on Sandalwood.jpg|thumb|''Indian Roller on Sandalwood'' by Zain ud-Din, now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art ]]
The '''Impey Album''' was a collection of Company style paintings commissioned by Elijah Impey (1732–1809) and his wife Mary, née Reade (1749–1818), of the animals in their menagerie in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, where Elijah was chief justice of the Supreme Court.<ref name="BBC-50542353">{{cite web |title=The forgotten Indian artists of British India |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-50542353 |publisher=BBC News |accessdate=30 November 2019 |date=30 November 2019}}</ref>
Between 1777 and 1782,<ref name="Ashmolean">{{Cite web |url=http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/6980/10198 |title=Lady Impey's Indian Bird Paintings |date=2013 |publisher=Ashmolean Museum |access-date=2016-11-23}}</ref> the Impeys hired local artists to paint the various birds, animals and native plants, life-sized where possible, and their natural surroundings. The collection, often known as the Impey Album, is an important example of Company style painting. The three artists who are known were Sheikh Zain ud-Din,<ref>Also known as Sheikh Zain al-Din</ref> Bhawani Das, and Ram Das.<ref name="Ekhtiar">{{Cite book|year=2011|editor=Ekhtiar, Maryam D.|title=Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum|location=New York|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vO761l9dgZwC&pg=PA401 401]|isbn=978-1-58839-434-7}}</ref> More than half the over 300 paintings<ref name="Ekhtiar" /> were of birds.
Mary also kept extensive notes about habitat and behaviour, which were of great use to later biologists such as John Latham in his work on Indian birds.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}
The collection was dispersed in an auction in 1810, and several pieces are in various museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,<ref name="Ekhtiar" /> Natural History Museum at Tring,<ref name=":0" /> with three in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London,<ref>{{Cite web|title=V&A collections database: Impey|publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/?limit=15&narrow=1&q=Impey&commit=Search&after-adbc=AD&before-adbc=AD&category%5B%5D=1543&offset=0&slug=0}}</ref> eighteen in the Radcliffe Science Library of the University of Oxford,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bsecs.org.uk/criticks-reviews/lady-impeys-indian-bird-paintings/|title=Review of 'Lady Impey's Indian Bird Paintings'|date=24 February 2013|website=|publisher=British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies|author=Cannon-Brookes, Caroline|accessdate=30 November 2019}}</ref> and four in World Museum, National Museums Liverpool.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A passion for natural history : the life and legacy of the 13th Earl of Derby|date=2002|publisher=National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside|others=Clemency Thorne Fisher, National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside|isbn=1-902700-14-7|location=[Liverpool]|oclc=50230237}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Fisher |first=C T |date=2003 |title=Museums on paper: library and manuscript resources |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41731808 |journal=Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club |volume=123A |pages=136–164}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Pink-Headed Duck {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/pink-headed-duck-330974 |access-date=2022-10-28 |website=artuk.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Asian Lesser Cuckoo {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/asian-lesser-cuckoo-330973 |access-date=2022-10-28 |website=artuk.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Indian Nuthatch {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/indian-nuthatch-330975 |access-date=2022-10-28 |website=artuk.org |language=en}}</ref>
The twelve pictures (eleven by Zain ud-Din) given to the Radcliffe Science Library are now on loan to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum|last=Harle|first=James C.|publisher=Ashmolean Museum |year=1987|isbn=9780907849520 |location=Oxford |pages=84 }}</ref> and between October 2012 and April 2013 were exhibited at the Ashmolean as part of an exhibition entitled '''Lady Impey's Indian Bird Paintings'''.<ref name="Ashmolean" />
An exhibition, '''Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company''', which opened in December 2019 at the Wallace Collection in London reunited about 30 paintings from the album.<ref name="BBC-50542353" /><ref name="Jones">{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Jonathan |title=Forgotten Masters review – the natural history geniuses robbed by the British empire |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/dec/03/forgotten-masters-review-the-natural-history-geniuses-robbed-by-the-british-empire |website=The Guardian |accessdate=4 December 2019 |date=3 December 2019}}</ref><ref name="WC">{{cite web |title=Exhibition - Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company |url=https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/exhibition-forgotten-masters-indian-painting-for-the-east-india-company/ |publisher=Wallace Collection |accessdate=30 November 2019 |language=en}}</ref> It was scheduled to run until April 2020,<ref name="WC" /> but like many such events was curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref name="COVID">{{cite web |title=An update from the Wallace Collection |url=https://www.wallacecollection.org/an-update-from-the-wallace-collection/ |publisher=Wallace Collection |accessdate=21 April 2020 |language=en |archive-date=23 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323074218/https://www.wallacecollection.org/an-update-from-the-wallace-collection/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== References == {{Commons category}}
{{Reflist}}
Category:Watercolor paintings Category:Paintings of birds Category:Indian paintings