KANGRA, CIRCA 1770

Details

VISHNU AND LAKSHMI RECLINING ON SESHNAGA
Kangra, circa 1770
Gouache heightened with silver and gold on paper, Vishnu reclining on the many-headed Seshnaga, Lakshmi, his consort, massaging his left foot, silver ground, red margin, oval format, blue spandrels with red and white arabesques, yellow outer stripe, minimal flaking, mounted
11 x 8in. (27.7 x 20cm.)

Provenance

Hiralal Bharany, Amritsar, June 1943

Literature

Mildred Archer and W.G. Archer, Romance and Poetry in Indian Painting, London, 1965, pl.47.
W.G. Archer, Visions of Courtly India, London and New York, 1976, no 39, pp. 70-1.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

In his 1976 discussion on the present painting Archer notes the similarity of various features of the composition to those of Guler painting. Is it by chance that the two figures are very similarly arranged and the spatial composition similarly empty to that of the same subject painted by Manaku, the brother of Nainsukh of Guler (W.G. Archer: Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, London, 1973, Basohli no.19(vi), vol.2, p.34). B.N. Goswamy suggests that Manaku's series was influential in the work of his brother (Nainsukh of Guler, Zurich, 1997, pp.33-4). Archer in the end however concludes that it is from Kangra on the basis of the colouration of the figures and the decoration of the spandrels. This would be fully consistent with the influence having arrived through Manaku's son Fattu who was known to have moved to Kangra (see lot 49), rather than by his brother. A series of paintings with very similar spandrels form a Sat Sai series attributed to Kangra 1780-90 (B.N. Goswamy and Eberhart Fischer: Pahari Masters, Zurich, 1992, no.150, p.350). One of these in the National Museum New Delhi is signed by Fatttu.

More from Arts of India

View All