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Lot Essay
Hawking and falconry were popular pursuits amongst Emperors, princes and nobility, and is well represented in Mughal painting. Here a princely figure, his status indicated by his fine clothes, sword, dagger and golden falconry glove, has dismounted his finely adorned horse to collect the quarry brought down by a hawk at the water's edge. In doing so he encounters a group of yoginis within a cave in the mountainside. The theme of royal encounters with ascetics became popular in the early 17th century. Such paintings could both be intended to flatter the subject in their admirable display of piety or reflect a sincere pursuit of spiritual understanding (Pratapaditya Pal et al., pp.100-101). However, this painting offers something different and an interesting juxtaposition is offered between the prince's mastery over the physical, demonstrated both by his recently felled quarry and large cavalcade in the background, and the spiritual or temporal attainment of the three yoginis he has happened upon.
A drawing published from a private collection which is most likely the preparatory drawing for this work and was attributed to the early 18th century (A.M. Freedman, Mala Ke Manke, New York, 2003, pp. 18-19). However, the refined treatment of the figures, care given to jewellery and garments and interest in the background detailing are typical of Mughal court painting at the turn of the 18th century. In these aspects our painting bears close comparison to two paintings both of which depict a royal Mughal hunt at night juxtaposed with chenchu hunters both dated to the late 17th century. The first is in the Keir Collection (B.W. Robinson (ed.), Islamic Painting and the Arts of the Book, London, 1976, v.93, p. 268 and pl.132) and the second, on a folio from the St Petersburg Muraqqa', was sold in these Rooms 27 October 2022, lot 95. Our horse and groom, shown in three quarter profile, find parallels in both night hunting scenes as do the elephants and soldiers depicted in miniature in the background.
Of particular interest is our prince who bears a particularly striking resemblance to the prince in the former St. Petersburg page, sporting a similar long moustache and wears a nearly identical sword. In the note by Adeela Qureshi de Unger for that painting the prince is identified as Kam Bakhsh. Muhammad Kam Bakhsh (d.1709) was the sixth son of the Emperor Aurangzeb (r.1658-1707). He is recorded as serving in the Deccan in the late 17th century and it is very plausible that the mountainous landscape in our painting is intended to represent the Deccan.
This painting was formerly in the collection of Jane Greenough Green (1914-2015), Los Angeles. Green was the slide librarian at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until 1975. It was the museum's 1970 exhibition of newly acquired Indian paintings from the collection of Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck that sparked her collecting. Buying almost exclusively from within Los Angeles, Green assembled a collection that focussed on romantic and spiritual themes, drawn to bold use of primary colours. Her collection, including the present lot, was exhibited in the Los Angeles Museum of Art in 1997.
A similar composition, which also featured a prince in the foreground in front of a group of female devotees, sold in these Rooms, 10 October 2000, lot 54. Closer in terms of quality, including a fine miniaturised landscape in the background, is a painting sold as part of Maharajas and Mughal Magnificence, Christie's New York, 19 June 2019, lot 258.
A drawing published from a private collection which is most likely the preparatory drawing for this work and was attributed to the early 18th century (A.M. Freedman, Mala Ke Manke, New York, 2003, pp. 18-19). However, the refined treatment of the figures, care given to jewellery and garments and interest in the background detailing are typical of Mughal court painting at the turn of the 18th century. In these aspects our painting bears close comparison to two paintings both of which depict a royal Mughal hunt at night juxtaposed with chenchu hunters both dated to the late 17th century. The first is in the Keir Collection (B.W. Robinson (ed.), Islamic Painting and the Arts of the Book, London, 1976, v.93, p. 268 and pl.132) and the second, on a folio from the St Petersburg Muraqqa', was sold in these Rooms 27 October 2022, lot 95. Our horse and groom, shown in three quarter profile, find parallels in both night hunting scenes as do the elephants and soldiers depicted in miniature in the background.
Of particular interest is our prince who bears a particularly striking resemblance to the prince in the former St. Petersburg page, sporting a similar long moustache and wears a nearly identical sword. In the note by Adeela Qureshi de Unger for that painting the prince is identified as Kam Bakhsh. Muhammad Kam Bakhsh (d.1709) was the sixth son of the Emperor Aurangzeb (r.1658-1707). He is recorded as serving in the Deccan in the late 17th century and it is very plausible that the mountainous landscape in our painting is intended to represent the Deccan.
This painting was formerly in the collection of Jane Greenough Green (1914-2015), Los Angeles. Green was the slide librarian at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until 1975. It was the museum's 1970 exhibition of newly acquired Indian paintings from the collection of Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck that sparked her collecting. Buying almost exclusively from within Los Angeles, Green assembled a collection that focussed on romantic and spiritual themes, drawn to bold use of primary colours. Her collection, including the present lot, was exhibited in the Los Angeles Museum of Art in 1997.
A similar composition, which also featured a prince in the foreground in front of a group of female devotees, sold in these Rooms, 10 October 2000, lot 54. Closer in terms of quality, including a fine miniaturised landscape in the background, is a painting sold as part of Maharajas and Mughal Magnificence, Christie's New York, 19 June 2019, lot 258.