In India, the Mughal Empire existed from the 16th century until well into the 19th century. The art of the period is especially known for the luxurious court art as well as the Mughal styles, which strongly influenced the local Hindu and later Sikh rulers. However, power in India gradually passed from emperors to local rulers and later to European powers from the end of the 17th century. The art of the period was significantly influenced by the redistribution of power towards the colonial powers, which is reflected in the works of the often overlooked artist Shaikh Zain ud Din.

Little is known about the life of Shaikh Zain ud Din. What is known, however, is that he was a Muslim artist who grew up in the north-east of India in the city of Patna. There he also received his training as a miniature painter in the Mughal style. It is likely that he learned Mughal painting in a regional school, as was common at the time, such as those that existed in Calcutta, Lucknow, Faizabad, Madras, or Delhi in addition to the one in Patna. Today, however, he is known for his botanical illustrations, which he created during his employment with Sir Elijah Impey, an Indian judge and the first president of the Supreme Court in Bengal, in Calcutta. Sir Elijah and his wife Mary owned a menagerie, a precursor to the zoological garden, and commissioned several artists, including Zain ud-Din, to artistically document the flora and fauna there.

Shaikh Zain ud Din's style can be described as a fusion of elements of classical Indian art in the Mughal style and the so-called Company style, which emerged with the arrival of the British colonial powers in India. The Company style takes its name from the British East India Company, a trading company famous for its exploitation and oppression of the Indian subcontinent. The latter commissioned art from Indian artists for decades, thus shaping Indian art with its Western influences. Zain ud Din worked during the Company period until 1875, before the British Raj, the direct rule of the British Crown in India. The depictions of exotic fauna and flora in his works at the time were a popular choice of subject. A curator once described his works as follows: "Everything is incredibly precise and beautifully observant."

Zain ud Din's works were first shown in 2016 at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, UK, as part of the "Flower Power" exhibition. There, botanical illustrations by Indian male and female artists were exhibited. Under his paintings, however, was another name: Jack Joyenadey. The curators had misread his signature, which was written in an old handwriting.