Long before cameras went into the jungle, Emperor Jahangir took painters with him. His court artist, Ustad Mansur, painted birds and animals so faithfully in the 17th century that naturalists still admire his work.

Inspired by his technique, we work with brushes of a few ethically sourced squirrel hairs, on layered wasli paper or canvas, with organic mineral colours and a final polish of agate stone, because nothing else gets a tiger's fur or a hawk's wing quite right.

The Indian Wildlife Collection carries that patience forward in the Mughal manner.