Description
Hand-spun and woven cotton cloth was probably the most important commodity exported from India during the 1700s and 1800s. The British East India Company expanded to manage the business of textile production and international sale. The
humble conditions under which Indian weavers and spinners worked are depicted here, where simple looms are made from crude branches, and the craftsmen work on the ground. The inscriptions at the top of the page indicate the artist’s name and the workers’ occupations.
humble conditions under which Indian weavers and spinners worked are depicted here, where simple looms are made from crude branches, and the craftsmen work on the ground. The inscriptions at the top of the page indicate the artist’s name and the workers’ occupations.
Provenance
George P. Bickford [1901–1991], Cleveland, OH (by 1975); William E. Ward [1922–2004] and Ellen Svec Ward [1921–1989], given to the Cleveland Museum of Art (?–1987); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1987–)
Accession Number
1987.162
Medium
Gum tempera and ink on paper
Dimensions
Overall: 23.7 x 19 cm (9 5/16 x 7 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Ward
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Ink Tempera Paper Indian
Background & Context
Background Story
Kehar Singh (active mid-19th century) was an Indian painter known for the precisely observed, richly colored paintings of everyday life that make him one of the accomplished painters of the Company school. Weaving and Spinning from c. 1860 depicts weaving and spinning in the precisely observed, richly colored manner that distinguishes the Company school's best work from the more general painting of the period. The Company school was a style of Indian painting that developed under the influence of British patrons, combining Indian painting techniques with European subject matter and composition, and Kehar Singh's precisely observed treatment of everyday Indian life shows the Company school at its most accomplished.
Cultural Impact
Weaving and Spinning is important in the history of Indian painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, richly colored manner of the Company school as applied to everyday Indian life. The Company school—combining Indian painting techniques with European subject matter and composition—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in 19th-century Indian painting, and Kehar Singh's c. 1860 painting shows this tradition at its most precisely observed.
Why It Matters
Weaving and Spinning is Kehar Singh's precisely observed Company school painting: weaving and spinning rendered in the richly colored manner of one of the accomplished painters of 19th-century Indian painting. The c. 1860 painting shows everyday Indian life through the lens of the Company school tradition.
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