UDAIPUR, NORTH INDIA, EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Pannalal very much headed the royal painting workshop under Maharana Fateh Singh (1849-1929), and still held this position in 1935 when Bhopal Singh (1884-1955), his adopted son, summoned the artists to the palace in Udaipur, where Pannalal oversaw the overall design programme of the Raj Mahal (The Art of Realism Painted photographs from India, in Rahaab Allana, Painted Photographs: Coloured Portraiture in India, The Alkazi Collection of Photography and Mapin, SOAS, 2008). In the present work the treatment of the rocky ground, very much looking like water drop stains, is identical to that found on two hunting scenes with Maharaja Fateh Singh by Pannalal; as is the overall treatment of the mountainous landscape and the colour tone. The paintings are dated 1916 (see Andrew Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur, Zurich, 2001, fig.267 and fig.268, pp.296-298). A late painting by Pannalal sold at Christie’s, King Street, 10 June 2015, lot 89.