Painting

This is a detail from a horizontal scroll-painting depicting Hindu deities. It is a Company painting (the name given to paintings made by Indian artists for the British in India). William Marsden, who served in Sumatra as an East India Company writer between 1771 and 1779, acquired it. In 1785 he established an East India Agency business in London and later became First Secretary to the Admiralty. He devoted himself to scholarly pursuits relating to Asia, and in 1783 he published a History of Sumatra. He presented this scroll to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1828. In 1924 the Society gave it to the V&A.