BASOHLI-GULER STYLE, PUNJAB HILLS, CIRCA 1760-65

This painting and the two preceding lots (lots 394 and 395) illustrate the change in Pahari paintings from a stylized to a naturalistic rendition of animated life and nature. The work of Manaku of Guler, as visible in a painting from the Kronos Collections, illustrate this change and is striking by its fantastic rendition of trees, animals and nocturnal light (Indian Court Painting: 16th-19th century, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1997, p.100, cat.60). An earlier work by Manaku datable to circa 1740 and showing King Prithu pursuing the Earth who flees in the form of a cow gives an interesting comparable for the composition of the present painting. In both miniatures, the king, armed with a bow and riding a charriot, pursues game in a forested landscape (Goswamy and Fischer, Pahari Masters, Washington, 1992, cat.107, p.260).