BY A MASTER PAHARI ARTIST: A SEATED RAJA WITH TWO COURTIERS BEFORE HIM PRESENTING A WHITE HAWK
INDIA, PUNJAB HILLS, JAMMU, CIRCA 1760-80
£47,701
Auction: Indian Paintings from the Collection of William & Mildred Archer | Lots 84 to 152 | 12 June at 10am
Description
gouache and gold on card, red border, depicting palace terrace with a Raja dressed in a white jama with a pink sash around his waist, and a yellow and black fashioned turban with red aigret, holding a hookah to his mouth in his right hand, and a betel leaf in his left hand, kneeling on a white cushion with patterned sprigs, on top of a white carpet with orange floral border, by his side lies a dagger, some fruit and a plate of betel leaves, an attendant with a red turban with a caurie behind him, two figures seated in front of him, one in a pink turban and black aigret with white plume, gloved, and holding a white hawk, the other in dark blue spotted turban with a sword by his side, all seated on a pink and blue vertical striped carpet within a low-walled terrace with hills and skyline behind, mounted, glazed and framed
Dimensions
Folio: 21.4cm x 29.9cm (8 3/8in x 11 6/8in)
Footnote
Exhibited:
Loan to Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, from 1994 to 2004, no. 100.
Note:
The overall composition and soft colour palette are in the style of Nainsukh of Guler and his circle in Jammu. A lot of detail has gone into the subjects’ demeanour, their turbans and fashioned hair. The symmetry of the composition is noteworthy with the striped carpet, geometric balustrade, and the contrasting soft hills behind.
Nainsukh of Guler (1710-1778), the son of the painters Pandit Seu and brother of Manaku, was one of the finest of all Pahari artists. He flourished under his patron Balwant Singh of Jammu (1724-63), a younger son of Raja Dhrub Dev.
This terrace scene may depict the ruler Raja Brij Raj Dev of Jammu (1781-1787) and similarities can be drawn with other paintings that William Archer attributes to Jammu, see Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, London, 1973, Vol. I., pp.209-211, Vol. II, pp. 156-157, nos. 60 and 67.
For a full and thorough study on Nainsukh, his family and other Pahari artists see B.N. Goswamy and E. Fischer, op. cit., Zurich, 1992.