Company Officer Receiving a Nobleman
An artist with a great feel for ceremony and the nuanced social strata of the court created this tableau, which also provides insights into the hierarchies of colonial India. The British officer who was probably the patron of the work, seated at the center of the scene, receives the two guests who sit opposite. Like the officer, they are unidentified, perhaps a father and son from the Lucknow nobility. Attendants surround the figures in the somewhat flattened pavilion, while the foreground contains contrasting perspectival views of gardens being tended.
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