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Lot Essay
This painting is signed by the artist Dalchand. Son of Bhavani Das, it is thought that Dalchand was born in the 1690s and learned to paint in the Mughal manner in Lahore under the patronage of Prince Mu'azzam, the future Bahadur Shah, who had a small atelier in the city. Following the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, who had abolished the imperial atelier in 1658, Dalchand and his father likely moved to Delhi with their patron who had now assumed the Mughal throne. However, Dalchand would leave Delhi for unknown reasons around 1719 and find patronage first with the court in Jodhpur and then Kishangarh where he is recorded until circa 1760.
Despite his brief time in Delhi, Dalchand is considered one of the foremost Mughal court painters of the first half of the 18th century (Terence McInerney, Dalchand, in Beach, Goswamy and Fischer (eds.), Masters of Indian Painting, 1650-1900, Zurich, 2011, p.563). Nonetheless only two signed works exist from this period. One in the collection of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, New York, depicts ladies on a terrace (ibid, fig.1, p.567) and the other of a yogi fainting before a princess, formerly in the Ernevaz K. Dubash collection which was sold at Pundole's Mumbai, 9 April 2015, lot 120 (ibid, fig.2, p.568). These two signed works suggest that Dalchand came to specialise in zenana type painting in his brief time in Delhi. The present scene of ascetics at night, a popular subject in Mughal painting from the reign of Akbar, differs from the zenana scenes and yet does align with Dalchand's talents for deeply psychological portraiture and novel approach to composition (ibid, p.563). Particular care has gone into the modelling the portraits through heavy shading in a manner that recalls the use of chiaroscuro in Renaissance European painting. A large painting of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah attributed to Dalchand, circa 1730, was sold in Sotheby's London, 23 October 2024, lot 155.
Despite his brief time in Delhi, Dalchand is considered one of the foremost Mughal court painters of the first half of the 18th century (Terence McInerney, Dalchand, in Beach, Goswamy and Fischer (eds.), Masters of Indian Painting, 1650-1900, Zurich, 2011, p.563). Nonetheless only two signed works exist from this period. One in the collection of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, New York, depicts ladies on a terrace (ibid, fig.1, p.567) and the other of a yogi fainting before a princess, formerly in the Ernevaz K. Dubash collection which was sold at Pundole's Mumbai, 9 April 2015, lot 120 (ibid, fig.2, p.568). These two signed works suggest that Dalchand came to specialise in zenana type painting in his brief time in Delhi. The present scene of ascetics at night, a popular subject in Mughal painting from the reign of Akbar, differs from the zenana scenes and yet does align with Dalchand's talents for deeply psychological portraiture and novel approach to composition (ibid, p.563). Particular care has gone into the modelling the portraits through heavy shading in a manner that recalls the use of chiaroscuro in Renaissance European painting. A large painting of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah attributed to Dalchand, circa 1730, was sold in Sotheby's London, 23 October 2024, lot 155.