TWO ELEPHANTS IN COMBAT

MUGHAL INDIA, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

TWO ELEPHANTS IN COMBAT
MUGHAL INDIA, EARLY 17TH CENTURY
Ink and pigments heightened with gold on paper, each harnessed with golden trappings, a mahut on its back, other figures with flares at either side, laid down on card with green borders
5 5/8 x 8 5/8in. (14.3 x 22.1cm.) with borders

Lot Essay

This fine drawing of two elephants fighting is very close in composition and style to a work ascribed to the Mughal female artist Khurshid Banu now in the Howard Hodgkin Collection and dated circa 1600. This subject was very popular in the early 17th century as elephant fights were among the most popular royal entertainment (Visions of Mughal India, The Collection of Howard Hodgkin, Oxford, 2012, cat. 11, pp.44-45). Another close comparable example is in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and dated circa 1650 (Roselyne Hurel, Miniatures & Peintures Indiennes, Vol. I, Paris, 2010, cat. 26, pp.68-69).

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