# Impey Album

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Impey_Album
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Impey_Album.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impey_Album
> Source revision: 1330810445
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{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](/source/Indian_Roller) on Sandalwood'' by Zain ud-Din, now in the collection of the [Minneapolis Institute of Art](/source/Minneapolis_Institute_of_Art) ]]

The '''Impey Album''' was a collection of [Company style](/source/Company_style) paintings commissioned by [Elijah Impey](/source/Elijah_Impey) (1732–1809) and his wife [Mary, née Reade](/source/Mary_Impey) (1749–1818), of the animals in their [menagerie](/source/menagerie) in Calcutta (now [Kolkata](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Company_style) painting. The three artists who are known were [Sheikh Zain ud-Din](/source/Sheikh_Zainuddin),<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](/source/John_Latham_(ornithologist)) 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](/source/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art) in New York,<ref name="Ekhtiar" /> [Natural History Museum at Tring](/source/Natural_History_Museum_at_Tring),<ref name=":0" /> with three in the [Victoria and Albert Museum](/source/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](/source/Radcliffe_Science_Library) of the [University of Oxford](/source/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](/source/World_Museum), [National Museums Liverpool](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/COVID-19_pandemic_in_the_United_Kingdom).<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

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Impey Album](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impey_Album) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impey_Album?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.