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拍品专文
A man dressed simply in a long green jama over blue loose trousers and a green turban is standing in a courtyard before an imposing gateway. His jama is tied under his left arm as an indication of his Muslim faith. His shawl and cummerbund together with his sheathed dagger (apparently a pentimento, for another drawn but not painted dagger lies parallel) lie discarded beside him while his slippers and a water pot are behind him. Together with his rolled up sleeves, this suggests that he has just performed his ritual ablutions before prayer.
This standing man is possibly a muezzin, in charge of calling the faithful Muslims for the daily prayers. His head is thrown back as he sings the adhan, his index finger stuck in his ear as he seems to be correcting his pitch. However another reading of the scene gives this drawing a wonderful humorous stance. As the man is preparing to pray, he is blocking his ear with an expression of horror as the muezzin's call is so disgraceful. His mouth wide open, the man shouts at the direction of the muezzin standing somewhere in the domed architecture. The scene has a great sense of impromptu; it is a still directly observed from the daily life at the local mosque; these traits fit particularly well in the tradition set by the painters of the Seu family.
The style is strongly reminiscent of early works by Nainsukh such as figures in a Group of Trumpeters dated circa 1735-40 (B.N. Goswamy, Nainsukh of Guler, A Great Indian Painter from a Small Hill-State, Zurich, 1997, cat.13, pp.72-73). The muezzin’s pose with his left arm raised and bent is very close as well to the figure of a musician in the painting of Mian Mukund Dev with companions in the country side (Goswamy, op.cit., cat.25, pp.98-99). While the figure of the muezzin is well drawn and has the hallmarks of Nainsukh’s work some inconsistencies, such as the treatment of the architecture, suggest that it is not by the master himself.
Other paintings by Nainsukh's father, Pandit Seu can also be taken as possible sources for the present work. They share a similar sense of impromptu, being both very simple and lively. See for instance the painting of Hillmen dancing at a fair, dated circa 1730 and now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters, Zurich, 1992, cat.91, pp.226-227) and a coloured sketch of Two village musicians and a dancer in the Dr. Ludwig Habighorst Collection, Koblenz (John Seyller and Jagdish Mittal, Pahari Drawings in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad, 2013, cat.9, pp.35-36).
See also a coloured sketch of a priest and devotee in the Chandigarh Museum attributed tot he family workshop of Seu-Nainsukh and dated to the third quarter of the 18th century (B. N, Goswamy, Essence of Indian Art, Ahmadabad, 1986, cat. 79).
This standing man is possibly a muezzin, in charge of calling the faithful Muslims for the daily prayers. His head is thrown back as he sings the adhan, his index finger stuck in his ear as he seems to be correcting his pitch. However another reading of the scene gives this drawing a wonderful humorous stance. As the man is preparing to pray, he is blocking his ear with an expression of horror as the muezzin's call is so disgraceful. His mouth wide open, the man shouts at the direction of the muezzin standing somewhere in the domed architecture. The scene has a great sense of impromptu; it is a still directly observed from the daily life at the local mosque; these traits fit particularly well in the tradition set by the painters of the Seu family.
The style is strongly reminiscent of early works by Nainsukh such as figures in a Group of Trumpeters dated circa 1735-40 (B.N. Goswamy, Nainsukh of Guler, A Great Indian Painter from a Small Hill-State, Zurich, 1997, cat.13, pp.72-73). The muezzin’s pose with his left arm raised and bent is very close as well to the figure of a musician in the painting of Mian Mukund Dev with companions in the country side (Goswamy, op.cit., cat.25, pp.98-99). While the figure of the muezzin is well drawn and has the hallmarks of Nainsukh’s work some inconsistencies, such as the treatment of the architecture, suggest that it is not by the master himself.
Other paintings by Nainsukh's father, Pandit Seu can also be taken as possible sources for the present work. They share a similar sense of impromptu, being both very simple and lively. See for instance the painting of Hillmen dancing at a fair, dated circa 1730 and now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters, Zurich, 1992, cat.91, pp.226-227) and a coloured sketch of Two village musicians and a dancer in the Dr. Ludwig Habighorst Collection, Koblenz (John Seyller and Jagdish Mittal, Pahari Drawings in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad, 2013, cat.9, pp.35-36).
See also a coloured sketch of a priest and devotee in the Chandigarh Museum attributed tot he family workshop of Seu-Nainsukh and dated to the third quarter of the 18th century (B. N, Goswamy, Essence of Indian Art, Ahmadabad, 1986, cat. 79).