BISHAN SINGH (1836 – CIRCA 1900), PROBABLY AMRITSAR, NORTH INDIA, 1940 VS/1883-84 AD

At the exhibition of arts and crafts held at Lahore in 1864, Bishan Singh showed ten pictures including durbars of Ranjit Singh and Sher Singh, as well as the Amritsar Municipal Committee. Baden-Powell and Percy Brown commented that 'the perspective of the buildings is incorrect but the figure drawing is admirable. The colour is tasteful and rich and likenesses are good and the expression is varied and truthful' (B.H. Baden-Powell, Handbook of the Manufactures and Arts of the Punjab, Lahore 1872, pp. 354-55). The jury concurred that Bishan Singh’s work was ‘the most clever and truthful’ of the Sikh artists (Percy Brown, Indian Painting, Calcutta, 1920, p.62). Susan Stronge notes that the documentary style and large format of paintings by Bishan Singh are reflective of the shifting nature of Indian painting at the time and the growing influence of the models of Company School painting (Susan Stronge, Art of the Sikh Kingdoms, London, 1999, p.112).
Our second Bishan Singh painting is a version of those mentioned by Baden-Powell displayed alongside the Durbar scenes at the Lahore exhibition of the Amritsar Municipal Committee. The thirteen person committee is seated around a marvellously detailed model of the city, assembled to discuss a very important matter: the city waterworks. In the mid-19th century the design and construction of state-of-the-art sewage and waterworks systems was a matter of great civil and national pride. The vastly costly overhaul of the sewerage system of central London, masterminded by Sir Joseph William Bazalgette, was begun in 1858 and opened by the Prince of Wales in 1865. One would expect every self-respecting and forward-thinking municipality of the period to consider embarking on such a scheme themselves - or at least be seen to be doing so! We do not know the exact subject of the Municipal Committee painting shown by Bishan Singh at Lahore in 1863 - although curiously the Amritsar Municipal Committee was not formed until 1868 - however, it would appear that the grand scheme under discussion in our painting was never carried out. Nonetheless, the recording (or imagination) of such a momentous meeting would certainly have served as effective publicity for the administration at the time and it should be no surprise that was the task of this leading artist.
Our painting again demonstrates many of the hallmarks of Bishan Singh’s work. The portrait of each member of the committee is carefully executed and the pietra dura decoration on the architecture framing the scene is shown in typically meticulous detail. Again, we are presented with a feast of colour including vivid greens and deep lapis blues. The blue and white striped dhurrie on which the Committee is sat is very similar to a number found in a painting of daily life in Amritsar attributable to Bishan Singh, sold at Rosebery’s, London, 15 April 2016, lot 131. Another painting by Bishan Singh with a similarly striking blue dhurrie was sold at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 17 June 2021, lot 7, showing a scene around the sacred pool of the Amritsar Golden Temple. This was accompanied by another painting of women in a carriage at lot 6.
A painting by Bishan Singh of a Kashmir shawl weaving workshop can be found in the Musée Guimet, Paris (acc. no.MA 12702) and another of women in a cart in the Toor Collection, London (Toor, op.cit., p.282). A self-portrait of Bishan Singh was sold at Bonhams London, 25 October 2007, lot 483.