Man Dyeing Cloth

Members of the British East India Company, largely merchants themselves, collected picture books that were compendiums of Indian professions and occupations, made by a new class of commercial Indian artists. They often emphasized the exotic and primitive aspects of life in India, such as the turbaned, pajama-clad man, squatting on the ground with a blank expression, making dye and hand-coloring strips of cloth using simple terracotta vessels.