Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.8449
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King cobra
Date
1872
Creator
Annada Prasad Bagchi (1849 - 1905, Indian) , Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 440mm
width (painting): 735mm
width (painting): 735mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Herpetological study of a King cobra, Ophiophagus Hannah, here referred to as Ophiophagus elaps. Depicting head in right profile and full body, with three sketched details showing scalation on the head, from above, below and the side.
Inscribed in ink: ‘OPHIOPHAGUS ELAPS./ Leng 19” Circum 8”/ From Life./ Drawn by Annada Prasad Bagchi, Student. Govt. Sch: of Art Calcutta’ with further pencil annotation ‘Plate 10’. Pencil annotations believed to be in Joseph Fayrer’s hand.
From MS/628, a set of paintings and drawings executed by students of the Government School of Art, Kolkata, for Joseph Fayrer’s The Thanatophidia of India. Later published as a detail of plate 7 of this text.
Annada Prasad Bagchi (1849-1905), Indian artist, co-founder of the Kolkata Art Studio in 1878.
Sir Joseph Fayrer, first baronet, (1824-1907), surgeon and author, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1877. Fayrer worked in India between 1850 and 1872 and is best known for The Thanatophidia of India, a study of venomous snakes, illustrated by members of the Kolkata School of Art and published by the colonial government.
Inscribed in ink: ‘OPHIOPHAGUS ELAPS./ Leng 19” Circum 8”/ From Life./ Drawn by Annada Prasad Bagchi, Student. Govt. Sch: of Art Calcutta’ with further pencil annotation ‘Plate 10’. Pencil annotations believed to be in Joseph Fayrer’s hand.
From MS/628, a set of paintings and drawings executed by students of the Government School of Art, Kolkata, for Joseph Fayrer’s The Thanatophidia of India. Later published as a detail of plate 7 of this text.
Annada Prasad Bagchi (1849-1905), Indian artist, co-founder of the Kolkata Art Studio in 1878.
Sir Joseph Fayrer, first baronet, (1824-1907), surgeon and author, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1877. Fayrer worked in India between 1850 and 1872 and is best known for The Thanatophidia of India, a study of venomous snakes, illustrated by members of the Kolkata School of Art and published by the colonial government.
Transcription
Object history
These artworks were presented to the Royal Society on 8 January 1874 by Joseph Fayrer and acknowledged shortly after at a meeting of Council: ‘Read a letter from Dr. Fayrer, offering his collection of original drawings of the Poisonous Snakes of India to the Royal Society. Resolved - That Dr. Fayrer’s offer be accepted, and that the best thanks of the President and Council be returned to him for his gift.’ [Royal Society Minutes of Council, Printed, vol. 4, 1870-1877, p.204, 15 January 1874.]
Related fellows
Joseph Fayrer (1824 - 1907, British) , Surgeon
Associated place
