AFTER CHOKHA, DEVGARH, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1810-20

The painting is very much in the style of the artist Chokha who worked in Devgarh circa 1800, possibly even by the artist himself. Wild horses were amongst the artist's favourite subjects and a number of his works closely relate to the present example. See for instance 'Bounding Horses', a painting dated circa 1800 in the collection of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Katherine Ball Collection (X.71.42.426) and published in Stuart Cary Welch, India, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1985, no.259, p.382. The technique of applying small dots of pigments create a pointillist effect which is visible both in the San Franscisco painting and in the present work seem to be a signature of the artist. Another painting of wild horses is in the Harvard University Art Museums and dated circa 1811 offers a close comparable example. The vibrant herd of horses show the animals with gentle heads and typical bulgy eyes, frolicking in a sparse landscape (Milo Cleveland Beach, Rawat Nahar Singh II, Rajasthani Painters Bagta and Chokha, Master Artists at Devgarh, 2005, fig.100, p.84).