Samuel Daniell

Samuel Daniell came of the most distinguished family of topographical painters in Britain. His uncle Thomas and his brother William, both Royal Academicians, had produced Oriental Scenery, the greatest illustrated work on India of the period, and many accounted Samuel the most gifted of the three. He reached Ceylon on 14 August 1805 and, as Ranger of the Woods and Forests, gained a freedom of the interior unmatched in his day. His twelve plates of 1808 are among the finest natural-history prints of the Regency: a spotted antelope against brilliant foliage, elephants at a watering hole, a leopard within dense jungle, each drawn with luminous precision.