Serendipity at G20

The term “Company School” denotes the group of paintings, sketches, drawings and behind-glass paintings that were produced during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries for a European and mostly British clientele, usually by indigenous artists and artisans. This specific school of painting flourished in regions inhabited by large numbers of British (or other European) servicemen and their families stationed at important trading posts, military establishments or administrative centres.
Besides its universal commercial utility as an ingredient of talcum powder or as an isolator of electrical currents, mica emerged as a popular material for Company School works. We have in our collection more than 500 mica paintings from Murshidabad, Patna, Benares and Oudh in northern and eastern India, and from Trichinopoly in southern India.