INDIA, ISARDA, CIRCA 1720

Details

A Drawing of an Elephant
India, Isarda, circa 1720
The pachyderm standing with one hindleg chained and one foreleg raised, a rope around her middle, the tusks trimmed and capped with gold and a decorative band around her neck, in black ink highlighted with white, pink and orange
Opaque pigments and ink on paper
13 x 18 in. (33 x 45.7 cm.), framed

Provenance

Sotheby's New York, 21 March 1990, lot 76

Lot Essay

An inscription on the verso is translated to "37 hathi," meaning this is the thirty-seventh elephant in a series of such drawings. For a discussion of attribution of similar drawings from the schools of Isarda and Sawar, see I. Pasricha, "Painting at Sawar and Isarda," Oriental Art, Autumn 1982. For a similar drawing of the same school, see T. Falk, Elephants of Fame, 1987, no. 7.

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