Bixa Orellana

Vishnu Prasad

Watercolour on paper

c1823-1824
  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Government Art Collection
  • About the artist
    Vishnu Prasad (or Vishnupersaud) was one of an expert team based at the Calcutta Botanic Garden and among many Indian artists employed by botanists of the British East India Company. Initially employed by surgeon and botanist Francis Buchanan to work on statistical surveys, after Buchanan’s departure in 1814 he worked for Dr William Roxburgh (Chief Botanist from 1793). In 1828 Prasad accompanied botanist John Forbes Royle to Saharanpur, to make drawings for Royle’s ‘Botany and other Branches of the Natural History of the Himalayan Mountains…’ (1833). He also illustrated Roxburgh’s ‘Plants of the Coast of Coromandel’ (1795) and Nathaniel Wallich’s ‘Tentamen Florae Napalensis Illustratae’ (1824-26) and ‘Plantae Asiaticae Rariores’ (1829-32).
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  • Details
    Title
    Bixa Orellana
    Date
    c1823-1824
    Medium
    Watercolour on paper
    Dimensions
    height: 42.00 cm, width: 33.00 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Frank T Sabin, June 1960
    GAC number
    5165