A painting of a prince listening to music in a garden

INDIA, KOTAH, CIRCA 1800

Details

A painting of a prince listening to music in a garden
India, Kotah, circa 1800
Seated against a tree on a low throne holding his shield and arrows and attended by musicians, while in the midground a group of ladies bestow flowers on his camel as it drinks from their fountain, set amidst a verdant garden under a crimson and gold sky
Opaque pigments and gold on paper
11 3/8 x 8 1/8 in. (29 x 20.5 cm.), image
13¾ x 10 in. (35 x 25.3 cm.), folio

Provenance

Private collection, London, acquired in 2007

Lot Essay

While many of the landscape paintings from Kotah depict dynamic hunting scenes, the present work is unusual for its placid tranquility. The artist has masterfully depicted the camel's restrained vigor in the subtle twist and stretch of his neck as he drinks from the water's edge. Compare with the energetic necks of a rampaging elephant and frightened horse in another painting from the same period, see D. Mason, Intimate Worlds: Indian Paintings from the Alvin O. Bellak Collection, 2001, p. 168, cat. no. 70.

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