Perching on a branch set against a plain background, a male Asian koel remains vigilant. With glossy black plumage, rich chestnut wing feathers and white tipped primary covets, his colouration is markedly distinct from the female.
This arboreal species may be found in China, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Known as kokila in Sanskrit, the birds are revered for their melodious song and often feature symbolically in classical Indian poetry.
The work was formerly part of an album of Company School paintings in the possession of the aristocrat and Whig politician Paul Beilby Lawley Thompson, 1st Baron Wenlock (1784– 1852). The album featured a magnificent array of paintings from the Lucknow and Calcutta Schools and was undoubtedly compiled by an astute collector with a great appreciation of the genre.
Other notable European collectors of the period were Lady Impey in Calcutta and Marquess Wellesley in Barrackpore. They commissioned Indian artists to produce natural history studies with scientific accuracy. The resultant works were highly accomplished depictions, rendered with extraordinary colour and ornament.
Undoubtedly a member of this canon, the present study demonstrates the work of an exceptionally talented hand. Not only is the bird technically accurate, the work also conveys a sense of its vitality; the feet clasp onto the branch as the weight descends, the body compresses in anticipation, as though he might spread his wings and fly off the page at any moment.
Bearing the J. Whatman watermark, the study is numbered ‘402’ and erroneously inscribed in Persian ‘ku’el māde (female Asian koel)’.

Bibliography:
Churchill, WA. Watermarks in paper in Holland, England, France, etc., in the XVII and XVIII centuries and their interconnection, Amsterdam: Nieuwkoop B De Graaf 1985, authorized reprint 1935, pp.83–84.
Archer, Mildred. Natural History Drawings in the India Office library. Commonwealth Relations Office, London, 1962.

This exceptionally refined work highlights the elegance of the female koel and captures her alert nature as she raises her head and casts her beady eye toward the viewer.
The plumage of the bird’s head and body is of mottled browns and greys, and the black wings are punctuated by white spots. Her three barred rectrices continue this sophisticated colouration.
Members of the cuckoo family, Asian koels are canny brood parasites; laying their eggs in other birds’ nests, where their chicks hatch first, commanding more attention from their host parents. Recently scientists have discovered that the female koel’s plumage specifically evokes that of a local raptor species, and by mimicking these birds of prey they scare off the would-be host birds and deposit one of their eggs in the unguarded nests.
Artistic prowess abounds in this work; subtle blending from brown to buff to grey and white, overlaid with minute wisps of black creates an exquisitely soft feel to the downy breast feathers. Further extraordinary detail appears within the glistening reflection in the bird’s eye and dash of pale pink at the edge of the beak, as though stained by the juice of a recently eaten forest fruit.
The work bears the 'Strasbourg Lily' watermark, which appeared on Dutch, German and English papers from the late 17th – 19th century. Below the bird is a Persian inscription, erroneously labelling it as a ‘ku’el nar (male Asian koel)’. To the right of this appears the album number ‘401’.

Bibliography:
Welch, Stuart Cary. Room for Wonder: Indian Painting During the British Period 1760–1880. American Federation of Arts, 1978.
Archer, Mildred. Natural History Drawings in the India Office Library. Commonwealth Relations Office, London, 1962.