2006.16.3: “Putka”, folio from the album Fishes of India

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2006.16.3

Title

“Putka”, folio from the album Fishes of India

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

c. 1810

Places

Creation Place: South Asia, India, Bengal

Culture

Indian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/4852

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Watercolor and gouache on Whatman paper; Company School

Dimensions

28.58 x 48.26 cm (11 1/4 x 19 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription: 11 / Tetradon / Putka / Dq. p.14, vo. Aq, c6
• inscription: Language: English
  Script:
  11
  Tetradon?
  Putka
  Dq. p.14, vo. Aq, c6

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gweneth Knight Memorial Fund and the William M. Prichard Memorial Fund

Accession Year

2006

Object Number

2006.16.3

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Two small puffer fish are facing each other halfway down the page, just right of the center. The fish on the left is shown in profile, with a green body that is darker at the top and then fades to a cream-colored abdomen. The fish on the right is depicted from both a profile and top view. This distinct perspective simultaneously highlights the fish's eyes, the demarcations on its back, and its flared abdomen. The fish is gray with light and dark blue stripes on its back. The lower half of its body is dark gray which fades to a white abdomen.

There are inscriptions in pen and pencil in the right third of the composition, behind the fish. These inscriptions are oriented vertically, like the album itself. An inscription identifies the fish as “Putka”. Another inscription states, what appears to be “Tetradon”. This could be referring to the family, Tetradontidae. It is possible that the fish represent the species Arothron reticularis from this family, a reticulated puffer fish that is found on the east coast of India.

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.

Publication History

• Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums Annual Report 2005-2006 (Cambridge, MA, 2007), p. 16

Exhibition History

• 32Q: 2590 South and Southeast Asia, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/21/2015 - 11/03/2015

Verification Level