A large Company School album of watercolours
of costumes, craftsmen, trades and processions in India providing a
fascinating insight into the culture of the early 1800s will go under
the hammer in LONDON next month and is expected to fetch anything between
200,000 and 300,000 pounds. This album is remarkable for the size,
quality and range of subjects of the watercolours, the auction house
said. It will be sold in Sotheby's Arts of the Islamic World sale on
April 24. In an era before cameras and photography, administrators,
officials and visitors to the East India Company would commission such
albums, painted by local Indian artists to bring back and show their
friends and relatives. Superior to the majority of similar related
productions of Company patronage, the album is remarkable for both its
size and quality, and also for its uncommon subject matter. Alongside
depictions of craftsmen, processions, dancers and contemporary costumes,
the album also contains a self- portrait showing the artist at work.
Among other characters illustrated are a fisherman, doctor, barber,
goldsmith, a dressing servant and dancing girls. All in all, the album
includes 35 large sheets bound in their original leather covers. The
album contains some interesting and rare portraits. The focus of the
album as well as its pictorial style is the southern and eastern regions
of India. A very similar album is in the India Office Collections in
the British Library here.
With the stage set for International Yoga Day this Sunday, yoga asanas were performed mid-air at 35,000 feet above the sea-level, arguably the first time ever! The asanas called Upayoga or useful yoga were performed as a trial-run aboard the Delhi-Guwahati and Guwahati-Delhi flights of budget airline SpiceJet with over 180 passengers and crew. The Gurgaon-based carrier has teamed up with Isha Foundation of Sadhguru to conduct mid-air yoga sessions on its select Boeing flights on Sunday, which is being observed as International Yoga Day. Talking about the yogic postures demonstrated, Gita, a teacher with the Isha Foundation said the session was designed to reduce stress for passengers who travel long hours. "These are safe, simple postures which can be done by anyone, and can be practiced anytime and anywhere. They help in relieving stress accumulated in the upper neck and spine region," Gita told PTI. The passengers on board, who had no clue about the onboard yoga demonstr...
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