The interior of the palace at Madura, with the District Collector conducting business
Company School, Madura, South India, circa 1840
pencil and watercolour on paper, inscribed (formerly in lower border, now affixed to backboard) The Durbar, in the ruined palace of the Rajahs of Madura (Drawn by a native)
286 x 415 mm.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Conway Mordaunt Shipley (1824-88), Royal Navy from 1837, travelled in India 1853-54.
With Martyn Gregory, London.
Private UK collection.

Exhibited
From China to the West, Martyn Gregory, London 2012-13, cat. no 101 (label on backboard).

The Tamukkam Palace at Madura (modern Madurai), a few hundred miles from Madras, was originally built, circa 1670, as the summer palace of the Rani Mangammal, queen regent of the Nadu kingdom. It was later occupied by the Nawab of the Carnatic, and after that by the East India Company from 1801, functioning as the official residence of the District Collector. From 1959 the palace became the Mahatma Gandhi Museum. With its distinctive ogee arches and massive pillars, it was also depicted by Thomas and William Daniell in the late 18th Century.

For a group of four Company School works depicting the exterior of the palace, and the temples of Minatchy and Vasanta, at Madura, see Sotheby's, Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 29th April 1998, lots 91-94. These too have identifying inscriptions in English. M. Archer noted that aside from its official status Madura was regarded as a centre for Company officials, who were attracted by its monuments and sculpture. An Indian artist, named Ravanath Naik, appears to have worked in tandem with British amateur painters (Company Drawings in the India Office Library, London 1972, p. 52).

For another painting by an Indian artist, depicting Pudu Mandapa, opposite the Meenakshi Temple, and in the collection of Conway Mordaunt Shipley, see India and Iran: Works on Paper, Oliver Forge & Brendan Lynch, March 2022, no. 25.