Green Parrot

Description

Made by an Indian artist for a British civil servant working in Calcutta (now Kolkata), this bird is portrayed with precision and brilliant color. It appears to be of the same type as Tuti, the protagonist of the early Mughal Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot) manuscript. This example, however, has a black beak, indicating she is female, while the male Tuti has a red beak. Though loosely translated as “parrot,” Tuti is technically a Lord Derby’s parakeet. Because of its ability to talk, the parrot often appears in Indo-Iranian tales as a messenger of moral wisdom.

Provenance

Edgar A. Hahn [1882-1970], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art (?-1972); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1972-)

Green Parrot

[]

c. 1820

Accession Number

1972.285

Medium

Gum tempera on paper

Dimensions

Overall: 38.5 x 28.6 cm (15 3/16 x 11 1/4 in.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Bequest of Edgar A. Hahn