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Lot Essay
This painting simultaneously exhibits two themes of Indian painting: the Baramasa and the Ragamala. The context of the painting is that of a Baramasa, which literally translates to the 'Twelve Months' and illustrates the calendrical text describing the romantic attributes of each month, which here is set in the month of Pausha (November – December). However, our Nayika (‘heroine’) in picking up her veena to play for her companions turns the theme of the painting jointly into a ragamala, a series depicting a range of musical melodies (ragas), which in this case depicts the Raga Malhar, normally associated with rain.
Stylistically this illustration bears numerous hallmarks of the Guler school of painting, notably showing the influence of Nainsukh and Manaku. The vertically striped red carpet is a feature of this school, an example of which is illustrated in Andrew Topsfield and Milo Beach, Indian Paintings and Drawings from the collection of Howard Hodgkin, London, 1994, cat.34., p.89. The drawing is not as tight and refined as that of the two masters, but the level of detail shown and handling of the figures suggests the work of the first generation after Nainsukh and Manaku. Such a dating is supported by the border of the present painting which is very similar to that of another by Nikka at Chamba, the third son of Nainsukh (Seyller and Mittal, Pahari Paintings in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad, 2014, no.76, pp.222-223). However, the fascination of the painter in rendering the tricky architectural composition of our painting, along with the round trees alternating with cypresses, has been described by Seyller and Mittal as characteristic of the work of Ranjha (op. cit, no.82, pp.238-239).
Stylistically this illustration bears numerous hallmarks of the Guler school of painting, notably showing the influence of Nainsukh and Manaku. The vertically striped red carpet is a feature of this school, an example of which is illustrated in Andrew Topsfield and Milo Beach, Indian Paintings and Drawings from the collection of Howard Hodgkin, London, 1994, cat.34., p.89. The drawing is not as tight and refined as that of the two masters, but the level of detail shown and handling of the figures suggests the work of the first generation after Nainsukh and Manaku. Such a dating is supported by the border of the present painting which is very similar to that of another by Nikka at Chamba, the third son of Nainsukh (Seyller and Mittal, Pahari Paintings in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad, 2014, no.76, pp.222-223). However, the fascination of the painter in rendering the tricky architectural composition of our painting, along with the round trees alternating with cypresses, has been described by Seyller and Mittal as characteristic of the work of Ranjha (op. cit, no.82, pp.238-239).