Important Notice

Thomas Hickey, an Irish artist, developed such a deep fondness for India during his first visit to the country that he nearly adopted it as his own. "Between 1780, when Hickey first left England for India at the age of thirty-nine and his death in India aged eighty-three in 1824, only eleven years were spent outside the country - three of them (1780-83) in Portugal, five (1791 and 1795-98) in England and three (1792-94) on a voyage to and from... Thomas Hickey, an Irish artist, developed such a deep fondness for India during his first visit to the country that he nearly adopted it as his own. "Between 1780, when Hickey first left England for India at the age of thirty-nine and his death in India aged eighty-three in 1824, only eleven years were spent outside the country - three of them (1780-83) in Portugal, five (1791 and 1795-98) in England and three (1792-94) on a voyage to and from China. Of the remainder, a first period (1784-91) consisted of a stay of five years in Calcutta (1784-early 1791). His second and final period of twenty-five years (late 1798 to 1824) was spent almost entirely in the Madras Presidency with a break of only five years (1807-12) in Calcutta." (Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture (1770-1825), London: Sotheby's Publications, 1979) The present lot is believed to have been painted during the final five-year period in Calcutta (now Kolkata).

Born in Dublin, Hickey studied in the drawing schools of the Dublin Society where he won several prizes in his early teens and gained a reputation for his portraiture skills with chalks. He began working with oils following an academic trip to Italy in the early 1760s but was unsuccessful in gaining his expected patronage in Dublin. He moved to London, and then Bath, in search of better opportunities and to make a name for himself as an artist - a quest that found him aboard a ship to India in 1780. This voyage, however, ended up with a detour in Lisbon where Hickey received numerous portrait commissions which, in turn, caused him to remain in Portugal for a few years.

He finally arrived in India in 1784 and settled in Calcutta where he painted highly distinguished portraits of many Indians and Europeans. Hickey's second visit to India, from 1798 onwards, had him painting a series of wonderful chalk portraits of over thirty British Army officers and numerous Indian soldiers. Skilled in achieving likenesses with both chalk and oil, Hickey's "most famous works are the superb group of sixteen portraits of the sons and courtiers of Tipu Sultan. They were done for Government House in Calcutta (now Raj Bhavan) and survive divided between Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi (seven) and Victoria Memorial (nine). They are among the finest existing portraits of Indians done by a European artist." (Charles Greig, "Thomas Hickey," Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art, New Delhi: DAG Modern, 2016, p. 203)

The present lot shows two brothers, Harakumar and Prasanna Coomar Tagore dressed in richly embroidered achkans. They were the eldest sons of Gopi Mohan Tagore, one of the founders of Presidency College, Kolkata and the owner of one of the finest collections of European paintings in India during his lifetime.

Perched on Harakumar's arm is a white cockatoo that would have probably arrived in Calcutta via a trading ship. Harakumar has a rich red and gold shawl draped over his shoulder while his younger brother Prasanna has a purple and gold one.

The present lot is an oil on canvas that has been painted in a style that closely resembles the sixteen portraits mentioned above. However, it was more ambitious in scope since Hickey chose to make this a full-length portrait that was set outdoors on a terrace. "It demonstrates the artist's extraordinary ability to capture the character and appearance of his sitters and his flair for painting rich fabrics. It was done just prior to his departure from Calcutta to Madras in 1812 and was almost certainly the last commission he received in Bengal." (Grieg, p. 203)

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