A painting in the Vellore Album, housed at Sotheby's New York, shows Indian artist Yellapah of Vellore seated cross-legged in front of a drawing table with the paraphernalia of his trade strewn around him. Flanked by two assistants, Yellapa's gaze is firmly on the viewer. The inscription below reads, Yellapah Picture Moochee. The arresting self-portrait dates back to 1825. But, until recently, Yellapah was unknown in India.

Scores of Indian artists like him, who created extraordinary paintings under the patronage of the East India Company, and its officials, have gone largely unnoticed. William Darlymple's latest book, Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting For The East India Company, seeks to correct the wrongs by drawing focus on this neglected phase of Indian art history. "It all began in 2013 when I was curating a show on Mughal art in New York, which had a few frames from the current collection," says the Delhi-based author and historian. He found it problematic that most of these paintings, indistinguishable from Mughal paintings, were unceremoniously categorised as "Company school paintings".