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Lot Essay
This painting and lot 394 are part of the fifth Baghavata Purana series formerly belonging, in large part, to Mrs. F.C. Smith, which sold Sotheby's, London, December 1960 and discussed by W.G. Archer in Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, London, 1973. Each painting has an indentification inscription on the reverse in gurmukhi and nagari script. The series is now dispersed in a number of collections. These include eight in the Victoria and Albert Museum, one in the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as others at that time in the Archer Collection (see also W.G. Archer, Visions of Courtly India, London and New York, 1976, no. 8, p. 15 and W.G. Archer and Edwin Binney 3rd, Rajput Miniatures from the Collection of Edwin Binney 3rd, Portland 1968, nos.55a and 55b, pp.74-5 for three very similar compositions each representing a different stage in the same story).
In both his 1973 and 1976 publications, Archer makes suggestions about the artist responsible for much of the series. The compositions of a number of paintings are clearly modelled on those of the artist Manaku in the 1735 Gita Govinda series. Archer suggests that the painter is Fattu, Manaku's son and therefore also Nainsukh's nephew, who went on later to make his name at Kangra. Whether one follows Archer or Goswamy in defining Nainsukh's main patron, the artist is known to have moved around 1763 to Basohli and it is almost certain that his advent would have had a strong influence on the work of other members of his family such as Fattu. For other paintings from the same series sold at public auctions, see the note to lot 394.
In both his 1973 and 1976 publications, Archer makes suggestions about the artist responsible for much of the series. The compositions of a number of paintings are clearly modelled on those of the artist Manaku in the 1735 Gita Govinda series. Archer suggests that the painter is Fattu, Manaku's son and therefore also Nainsukh's nephew, who went on later to make his name at Kangra. Whether one follows Archer or Goswamy in defining Nainsukh's main patron, the artist is known to have moved around 1763 to Basohli and it is almost certain that his advent would have had a strong influence on the work of other members of his family such as Fattu. For other paintings from the same series sold at public auctions, see the note to lot 394.