Two Exceptional Folios from the Rind Album

Major James Nathaniel Rind

1753 - 1814

These two large watercolours were made for the Rind Album, compiled by Major James Nathaniel Rind (baptised 1753-1814). Born in Scotland, Rind travelled to India in 1778, where he was stationed until 1801. He held several posts during his time there, [see page bottom for the record of his career ] but appears to have spent most of his employment on survey duty. It seems that Rind was based in Calcutta from 1793 to 1801.

Paintings from Rind's extensive album were first introduced to a wider audience at Sotheby's in 1971, when part of his collection was sold by his descendants, including our Portrait of a Bengali (lot 48). Other folios in the sale included depictions of fish, birds and plants. A second sale of paintings from the Rind Album took place at the same saleroom in 1985.

While many of Rind's paintings are relatively conventional, some are truly extraordinary. The Rind paintings included in Stuart Cary Welch's landmark 1978 exhibition of Company School paintings are of very different subject matter. Three are botanical studies, one is an elegant depiction of a snake and one illustrates the eccentric sheep eater of Fategarh, Suza Geer Berah Geer, slowly devouring a sheep with his teeth, his face smeared with blood (Welch, 1978, no 11 & ed. Dalrymple, 2020, no 75). Rind, obviously fascinated by idiosyncratic subjects as well as more conventional botanical studies, must have therefore commissioned works from different artists or assembled his collection from several sources (Noltie 2020, p. 81). Some of Rind's paintings bear the initials 'J.N.R.' in pencil on the reverse. Among the most gifted artists working for Rind was Chunni Lall whose work was also acquired by Sir James MacGregor.

Folios from the Rind album are now widely dispersed and paintings are in the collection of the British Museum, the British Library, the Harvard Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Asian Art (formerly the Freer Sackler) and the Princeton University Art Museum. We are grateful to Malini Roy at the British Library and to Charles Greig for his informative essays
Portrait of a Bengali Hindu in a Landscape

c. 1790, Opaque pigments on paper, 96.5 x 63.5 cm

Large paintings of birds, animals and botanical studies by Indian artists working in the late 18^th Century are well known and were done in significant numbers. But figure portraits like ours on this scale are almost unknown to studies. In the past it has been suggested that our unusual portrait represents a holy man, but this is clearly untenable. Hindu holy men are generally ascetics, but our figure is rather different. The elegance of his demeanour and his simple but expensive attire suggests that he was a high caste Bengali of some distinction - but there are other clues to his identity. Our figure stands on the edge of the Hugli and sailing on the river, entirely out of scale, is a small East Indiaman. This suggests that he may have been a young Gomashta working for the East India Company in one of the settlements upriver from Calcutta dealing in goods for export. Bengali Vaishnavism, which goes back to Chaitanya (1486–1534) and his successors, is particularly prevalent in the district of Bengal now bordering Jharkhand – this gives us a clue to our Bengali’s origins.
A Bengal Catfish (Sperata aor) from the Hugli River

Chunni Lall, Calcutta, circa 1795, 61.5 x 101 cm

This large and impressive painting of a Bengal Catfish (locally called Artamin in Bengali) is one of a relatively small number of paintings of fish commissioned by Europeans from Indian artists in the closing years of the 18^th Century. Catfish are relatively common in the Hugli river. They get their name from their prominent barbels that closely resemble the whiskers of a cat. They are ray finned and scaleless and live largely on the bottom of the river. In Bengal they are greatly prized for their delicate taste and are the main ingredient for the renowned dish known as Ilish.

This painting, almost certainly painted from life and of identical scale to a live fish, was done by the somewhat illusive artist Chunni Lall. Lall or Lal is a very common name in Bengal but our artist was probably of the family of painters of that name who worked over a long period in Patna. Henry Noltie, in his essay ‘Indian Export Art? The botanical drawings’ for “Forgotten Masters”, The Wallace Collection, 2019, has suggested that Chunni Lall may be the same artist that Mildred Archer had previously listed as Tuni Lal who was working in Patna in about 1800 and subsequently worked for Adam Freer. Our Chunni Lall worked for both Major James Nathaniel Rind and Sir James MacGregor and he painted a variety of subjects for each patron.
Major James Nathaniel Rind Service Career

-As a lieutenant in the Bombay Marine from 17 August 1778 to September 1778;

-He was appointed Cadet in the 18th Bengal Native Infantry 10 September 1778.

-He was one of the assistants to Major James Browne at Delhi in April 1785 and on survey of the Sikh country and neighbourhood of Delhi 1785-87

-He was Lieutenant in the 17th Battalion Sepoys July 1787

-He was employed on survey duty 1787-90 (surveyed routes Etawah to Aligarh, Kalpi to Nagpur, Narbada River to Mirzapur, Ganges from Allahabad to Benares).

-He transferred from the 17th Battalion to Adjutant and Quartermaster 1st Sepoy Brigade, 18 November 1793

-He was Brigade Major, 1st Brigade, 15 November 1794 until January 1801

-He was Captain 14th Native Infantry in 1798 and transferred to 17th Native Infantry

-He was in the 18th Native Infantry 29 May 1800.

-He was furloughed 4 April 1801 until retirement.
Literature

Hartnoll and Eyre exhibition catalogue ‘Indian painting for the British 1770-1880’ catalogue 24, 1972, nos 1-16

H.J. Noltie, “Indian Export Art? The Botanical Drawings – The Rind artists for James Nathaniel Rind” in “Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company”, William Dalrymple (ed.), exhibited at The Wallace Collection, 2020, pp. 81-83

Welch, S.C. “Room for Wonder – Indian Painting during the British Period 1760-1880”, cat. No. 11 and 12a-c, pp. 44-47