{{Short description|Indian artist}} {{Infobox artist | name = Sheikh Zainuddin | image = Saras by Sheikh Zainuddin.jpg | caption = ''Saras'' by Zainuddin | native_name = | native_name_lang = bn | birth_date = <!-- {{Birth date|YYYY|MM|DD}} for dead. For living people supply only the year unless the exact date is already WIDELY published, as per WP:DOB. Treat such cases as if only the year is known, so use {{birth year and age|YYYY}} or a similar option. --> | birth_place = Patna, Bihar, Company raj | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} --> | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = Illustrations of fauna and flora | notable_works = | style = | movement = | patrons = Elijah Impey }} '''Sheikh Zainuddin''' or '''Shaikh Zain-al-Din''' ({{floruit|1777–1782}}) was an Indian artist who moved from Patna to Calcutta and worked for patronage in British Raj.<ref name="Banglapedia">{{Cite Banglapedia|article=Zainuddin,_Sheikh|author=Nazma Khan Majlis}}</ref> His works blending Mughal and Western painting techniques belonged to the Company style of painting.<ref name="bbc2020">{{cite news |last1=Verma |first1=Rahul |title=Rediscovering India's Forgotten Masterpieces |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200207-rediscovering-indias-forgotten-masterpieces |accessdate=11 February 2020 |publisher=BBC |date=11 February 2020}}</ref>
== Career == In the late eighteenth century, he worked under Mary Impey, the wife of Sir Elijah Impey, Chief Justice of Calcutta Supreme Court.<ref name="bbc2020"/> Among the three artists she brought from Patna to make realistic sketches of birds and animals of her private menagerie, Zainuddin was the foremost. Zainuddin combined English botanical illustration with Mughal Patna Qalam style.<ref name="bbc2020"/> In his paintings, modern critics appreciate the way a "bright, simple background offsets the keenly wrought details of plants and animals".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/awe-inspiring-wildlife-drawings-shaikh-zain-uddin-180973502/|title=The Awe-Inspiring Wildlife Drawings of Shaikh Zain ud-Din|last=Crawford|first=Amy|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>
From 1777 to 1782, Zainuddin worked on Whiteman art paper manufactured in England for his transparent watercolor paintings. For his tinted drawings and sketches, he employed meticulous calligraphic strokes reminiscent of the works of Mughal Court artist Ustad Mansur. The Ashmolean Museum has some of his art.{{r|Banglapedia}} <gallery> File:Orange-headed_thrush_1778.jpg|Orange-headed thrush and an ''Acherontia'' moth on a ''Bauhinia'' File:A_macaboo_thrush_shaykh_zayn_al-din_calcutta_india_1782.jpg|Chestnut-tailed starling on a ''Clerodendrum'' sp. File:Female Trogon shaykh zayn al-din calcutta india 1779.jpg|''Harpactes erythrocephalus'' female on a melastome File:Psilopogon zeylanica Zaynuddin.jpg|''Psilopogon zeylanicus'' on a ''Polyalthia'' File:Anastomus_Zayn_Al_Din.jpg|''Anastomus oscitans'' with snail File:LadyImpeyEphippiorhynchus.jpg|Black-necked stork File:Sheikh_Zain_ud-Din_-_Indian_Roller_on_Sandalwood.jpg Indian Roller </gallery>
== Exhibitions == Zainuddin's work was first exhibited in 2016 at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, as part of the [https://rammuseum.org.uk/past-exhibitions/flower-power-botanical-illustrations-form-indian/ Flower Power exhibition]. At that point his name, written in an old hand-writing was taken to be "Jack Joyenadey." Since then, researchers working together with the museum staff, have deciphered his name.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rammuseum.org.uk/indian-artists-revisited/|title = Indian artists revisited|date = 5 November 2018}}</ref> The updated exhibition is [https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/IAJCaAVabfooLw online]. Subsequently, Zainuddin's work was exhibited in 2019 at London's Wallace Collection, along with that of 17 other artists commissioned by the British East India Company. The director of the Wallace Collection, Xavier Bray, told ''Smithsonian'' that in Zainuddin's paintings, "Everything is incredibly precise and beautifully observant."<ref name=":0" />
==See also== *''Study of a Stork''
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Banglapedia|Zainuddin,_Sheikh}}
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Category:Year of birth missing Category:Year of death missing Category:18th-century Indian painters Category:Indian male painters