A COMPANY SCHOOL BOTANICAL STUDY OF A PEPPER PLANT (PIPER NIGRUM)
Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal or Malabar Coast, Southern India, late 18th - early 19th century

Opaque pigments and ink on laid paper, the vertical composition depicting an accurate rendition of a pepper plant, a perennial climbing vine of the family Piperaceae native to the Malabar Coast in India, producing fruits from which the pungent spice is extracted, the plant painted here intertwined and growing on a tree trunk, its characteristic ripe red and unripe green fruits stemming outward underneath thick and lush foliage depicting both young and mature leaves differentiated in palette and size, greater attention and precision in representing the natural veins of each leaf, the pictorial technique in line with Company School productions blending the accuracy and curiosity of Western botanical studies with locally available, autochthonous species and fluid brush mannerism, mounted on a white cardboard panel, glazed and framed, the painting 46cm x 32cm, 69.5cm x 55cm including the frame.

For a similar comparison in terms of how the foliage and the stems are rendered, please see the botanical study of a branch of the Banyan Tree sold at Sotheby's London, The Carlton Rochell Collection of Company School Paintings, 27 October 2021, lot 25.