POSSIBLY KANGRA, PUNJAB HILLS, FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

Details

TWENTY ILLUSTRATIONS TO A DASAVATARA SERIES
POSSIBLY KANGRA, PUNJAB HILLS, FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, seven within black borders with gold and white floral meander, thirteen within red borders with black and white floral meander, margins cropped, the verso of each with black devanagari identifying the scene and a number in the upper right corner, some with sketches or preparatory drawings on the verso, each set into a sealed card display mount with windows on both sides, generally good and clean condition
Each painting 3 ½ x 6in. (9 x 15.3cm.) approx.; mount 11 ⁶/₇ x 16 ½in. (29.5 x 42cm.)

Provenance

Anon sale, Sotheby's London, 29th and 30th March 1982, lot 146,
Dr. Raghu Gaind (d.2021), London

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

This extensive group of paintings belong to a Dasavatara series which details the epics of Vishnu's ten avatars. The present group includes twenty illustrations and it is rare to find such a large group of illustrations. Despite their small size, each illustration is finely painted and set within a floral border typical of 19th century Kangra painting. Each avatar is also neatly inscribed on the reverse. A single Kangra illustration from a Dasavatara of similar dimensions to the present group was sold in these Rooms, 26 May 2016, lot 33 and a further two similar but slightly smaller Dasavatara illustrations were sold as part of the John C. and Susan L. Huntington Collection, Christie's New York, 21 September 2022, lot 433.

Raghu Gaind (d. 2021) was former Chairman of Psychiatry at Guy's Hospital, London and elected Secretary General of the World Association of Social Psychiatry in 1985. Gaind was born in Jammu, Kashmir, in 1936 to a family who had served the Maharajas for generations and he moved to London in 1954 soon after qualifying to train at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry.

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