Rakhal Das Pal   A group of twenty clay figures of servants and tradespeople. Krishnagar, Bengal, 19th Century.   Polychrome sculptures, with human hair, cloth and beads.   Tallest figure: 26.5 cm; seated figures 14.5 cm   These sculptures are made of air-dried clay mixed with fine fibres, which might possibly be hair, modelled on a metal armature. Applied textile decoration has been used, and then painted with a water-based organic paint. Various areas, such as the eyes, have been varnished, other areas being matt in order to heighten realism.   The clothes have been woven to fit the scale of the sculpture, so that the patterns on the various textiles are appropriate. Beards and hair made of real human hair have also been used.   These figures are the work of Rakhal Das Pal, five have labels bearing the inscription Rakhal Das Pal, Ghoorne, Krishnanagar, Nuddra, Bengal. Rakhal may well have been part of the Jadu Nath Pal family. "... The figures made by them have acquired great celebrity, and they have repeatedly gained medals and certificates in most of the International Exhibitions held since 1851. There is considerable delicacy and fineness in their work; the figures are instinct with life and expression, and their pose and action are excellent." (T.N. Mukharji, Art Manufactures of India, 1888)   Highly naturalistic sculptures of this type were made at Krishnagar, a village near Calcutta, as well as at Hatwa, Datan (near Saran), Muzaffarpur, Dacca, Burdwan, and later, Lucknow and Poona. Like Company School paintings, these highly naturalistic sculptures prefigure photography and were made for the Great Exhibitions held all over Europe in the 19th Century as well as for both Indian and European patrons as early as the 1820s. Some of these figures were life size and some depicted Indigo Factories, one of these is in the Kew Garden collection. For a brief discussion of such figures and an illustration of village market scene with figures now in the Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, see Stuart Cary Welch, India: Art and Culture 1300-1900, New York 1985, pp. 91-2, fig. 45)