Harvard Art Museums

Pan, folio from the album Fishes of India

Date

c. 1810

Medium

Watercolor and gouache on Whatman paper; Company School

Department

Department of Islamic & Later Indian Art

Institution

Harvard Art Museums

The fish is painted in the center of the page, and from a birds-eye view. It is teardrop shaped, with a round head and tapering tail. The fish has two round eyes and a curved, triangular snout. It has a continuous row of lateral fins that extend the entire length of the body and taper into the tail. It is light brown in color with some mottling. The page has inscriptions in ink and pencil the lower third of the composition. One inscription identifies the fish as Pan, which most likely is referring to Brachirus pan, a type of sole native to the Indo-Pacific. This work falls into the genre of natural history documentation, an important enterprise undertaken by many European patrons during their time in India. This genre proliferated between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and demonstrate the artist's intention of making quick studies from life. Individual paintings were collected to form an album that documented a variety of animals and plants, thus acting, in a way, as a field guide. Company School.

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