A woman and two attendants

A fine depiction of three Indian women, this painting is from the renowned Fraser Album. The Fraser collection of over 90 paintings was commissioned in Delhi, India, by brothers William Fraser (1784–1835) and James Baillie Fraser (1783–1856) between 1815 and 1820. William Fraser travelled to India in 1799 aged 14 to work for the English East India Company. He engaged with the cultures and languages of India and lived in Delhi until his assassination in 1835. His brother James Baillie Fraser was an amateur artist who arrived in India in 1814. The Fraser brothers employed Indian artists to record aspects of daily life – from people and events to architecture and landscapes. Several artists were engaged but the names of most are no longer known. It has been suggested by Indian painting scholar Toby Falk that portraits like this work, are likely to have been painted by Ghulam Ali Khan. Paintings associated with expatriate clients, often on English paper in watercolour, came to be known as Company school pictures for their connection to the employees of the East India Company.