FEATURES ARCHIVE

Expression of Truth: An Important Rediscovery by Pandit Nainsukh
There are moments in a specialist’s career that bring indescribable joy and professional fulfillment; the recent discovery of Nainsukh’s Raja Balwant Dev Singh Shooting a Tiger is one such moment.

An Insider’s Perspective
Pandit Nainsukh (c. 1710–1778) came from a family of painters who settled in Guler in the northern hills of India. Nainsukh entered the service of Raja Balwant Dev Singh of Jasrota around 1740, and was given rare entrée into the quotidian activities of the prince’s life. His portraits of the Raja and his court, of which Raja Balwant Dev Singh Shooting a Tiger is a prime example, are considered to be among his finest.

Intimate Rendering
This work includes portraits of Raja Balwant Dev Singh and other known figures in his court. But it is Nainsukh’s rendering of these figures that sets his artwork apart from that of other Indian miniature artists. While most royal painters adopted an idealized approach to their portraiture, Nainsukh’s subjects are rendered in very individual, personal ways, absent of the princely halos and idealized beauty typical of royal paintings. Each figure is imbued with an exceptional vitality and truthfulness. When I view his paintings, I can almost recognize each of the figures, as if I have seen them walking down the streets of Delhi or Mumbai.

A Place in History
The emergence of Raja Balwant Dev Singh Shooting a Tiger offers a new and exciting chapter in the scholarship of Nainsukh. We traced the work to a now famous group of paintings from the collection of Sir Dorab J. Tata (ancestor to the Mumbai industrialist family) sold at auction in London in December 1931. In 2008 and 2009, we re-identified two of Nainsukh’s works in this group, based on the original catalogue descriptions and the presence of the collector’s stamp "Sir D. J. Tata" on the verso. Raja Balwant Dev Singh Shooting a Tiger, described as "…Rajah on horseback drawing his bow at a tiger which is cornered by horsemen and dogs," is a third discovery from this same group.