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Lot Essay
Inscriptions:
Above the painting: Rasikapriya of Keshav Das, verse 30 and the heading niscaraka... 'going out at night'
On the reverse: Bikaner inventory note from 1694 inventory: Am.32 jam... [damage] su sambhaliya 'no.32....bundle'
This illustration depicts the same scene as the preceding lot. Here the sky is stormier and streaked by lightning and we see cranes making a dash for cover in the trees. Again we see the gopis, here led by Nanda, returning to the village at the bottom of the composition having left their charges in a pen for the night.
Our painting comes from a known series dating from early in Rana Raj Singh’s reign (r.1652-80). 54 pages of the group are recorded in the former Bikaner Royal Collection (A.Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur: Art under the patronage of the Maharanas of Mewar, Zurich, 2002, pp.91-92) and are identifiable through the repaired damage in the top of the folios, having been attacked at some point by a hungry rodent. The series is based on an earlier one commissioned by Raja Jagat Singh (r.1628-52) and painted by Sahib Din. This series however shows the work of several hands. Other illustrations from the series are now in the National Museum, New Delhi and Neotia Collection (R.C. Sharma, Indian Art Treasures: Suresh Neotia Collection, New Delhi, 2006, nos.80-82). Others have been sold by Sam Fogg (Sam Fogg, Sale catalogue, 1999, no.41) and Sotheby’s, London, 12 December 1972, lot 113.
Above the painting: Rasikapriya of Keshav Das, verse 30 and the heading niscaraka... 'going out at night'
On the reverse: Bikaner inventory note from 1694 inventory: Am.32 jam... [damage] su sambhaliya 'no.32....bundle'
This illustration depicts the same scene as the preceding lot. Here the sky is stormier and streaked by lightning and we see cranes making a dash for cover in the trees. Again we see the gopis, here led by Nanda, returning to the village at the bottom of the composition having left their charges in a pen for the night.
Our painting comes from a known series dating from early in Rana Raj Singh’s reign (r.1652-80). 54 pages of the group are recorded in the former Bikaner Royal Collection (A.Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur: Art under the patronage of the Maharanas of Mewar, Zurich, 2002, pp.91-92) and are identifiable through the repaired damage in the top of the folios, having been attacked at some point by a hungry rodent. The series is based on an earlier one commissioned by Raja Jagat Singh (r.1628-52) and painted by Sahib Din. This series however shows the work of several hands. Other illustrations from the series are now in the National Museum, New Delhi and Neotia Collection (R.C. Sharma, Indian Art Treasures: Suresh Neotia Collection, New Delhi, 2006, nos.80-82). Others have been sold by Sam Fogg (Sam Fogg, Sale catalogue, 1999, no.41) and Sotheby’s, London, 12 December 1972, lot 113.