.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Ainsley Cameron of the British Museum has remarked that, "these paintings appear to be from a set of standing portraits attributed to Bakhta and dated c. 1780. I believe them to be from Bakhta's residence in Devgarh and not his time at Udaipur. The set includes a mixture of Devgarh and Udaipur rulers and would have been a way to solidify the allegiance between the subsidiary and the main court. The paintings may have at one point been bound together, however I don't know exactly how many there may have been originally."
The master painter Bagta (also spelled "Bakhta") trained in the royal court of the Mewar Rajput Maharana Ari Singh, and found true artistic liberation after departing Udaipur for Devgarh (also "Deogarh") in the late 1760's, when he received new patronage from the Rawats of the Devgarh thikana. Bagta's characteristic bold use of color coupled with a refined execution of detail are visible in the present pair of paintings, which date to the period of the artist's stylistic efflorescence. For a detailed discussion of the artist and his son, see M. Beach, Rajasthani Painters: Bagta and Chokha, 2007.
The master painter Bagta (also spelled "Bakhta") trained in the royal court of the Mewar Rajput Maharana Ari Singh, and found true artistic liberation after departing Udaipur for Devgarh (also "Deogarh") in the late 1760's, when he received new patronage from the Rawats of the Devgarh thikana. Bagta's characteristic bold use of color coupled with a refined execution of detail are visible in the present pair of paintings, which date to the period of the artist's stylistic efflorescence. For a detailed discussion of the artist and his son, see M. Beach, Rajasthani Painters: Bagta and Chokha, 2007.