English Interior in India

Anonymous, British, 19th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Painted by a skilled unidentified watercolorist, this work records a well-appointed early nineteenth-century room in India during the East India Company period, as viewed from an adjacent veranda. The two pedestal tables with scrolled, gilded legs are likely European imports, while the caned side chairs and low day bed would have been locally made. Swinging half doors and a punkah (a manually operated hanging cloth fan) encourage air circulation, and tall glass candle shields protect flames from drafts. Arranged to serve multiple functions, this room likely accommodated a single man.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art