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Lot Essay
The present painting depicts Ravana and his counselors in the golden fortress discussing their options as the great monkey and bear army arrive in Lanka. Blinded by his lust for Sita, Ravana carelessly disregards the opinions of his brother Vibhishana and decides to engage Rama's army in battle. Worrisome of bad omens from Sita's abduction, and confident of Rama's strength, Vibhishana quarrels with his brother over this decision until he decides to defect from Lanka. He leaps across the ocean to aid in Rama's pursuit, and after Ravana's defeat, will be instated as the King of Lanka.
This painting represents a scene from the fifth book, the Sundarakanda, of the Ramayana. There are only fifteen known paintings of this style, all from the same book, suggesting the group may have been commissioned to fill a gap in an existing series. It would appear that the group likely comes from a progression of Chamba series first commissioned in 1760 and discontinued in 1764 after the death of Raja Umed Singh; the series was then continued about fifteen years later, circa 1780-5, in a series for the third book, the Arayanakanda, which advances the style closer to the present series. The present chapter is attributed to circa 1800-1810, with consideration to stylistic characteristics that can be attributed to Garhwal workshops that permeated into Chamba around the Gurkha conquest of 1804. For further discussion on the series, illustrated in full, see S. Ray and J. P. Losty, 15 Paintings Depicting the Adventures of Hanuman on Lanka from the Ramayana, London, 2016. Paintings from this series recently sold at Christie's New York 23 March 2022, lot 475, and Christie's London, 27 October 2022, lot 106. See the previous lot for another painting from this series.
This painting represents a scene from the fifth book, the Sundarakanda, of the Ramayana. There are only fifteen known paintings of this style, all from the same book, suggesting the group may have been commissioned to fill a gap in an existing series. It would appear that the group likely comes from a progression of Chamba series first commissioned in 1760 and discontinued in 1764 after the death of Raja Umed Singh; the series was then continued about fifteen years later, circa 1780-5, in a series for the third book, the Arayanakanda, which advances the style closer to the present series. The present chapter is attributed to circa 1800-1810, with consideration to stylistic characteristics that can be attributed to Garhwal workshops that permeated into Chamba around the Gurkha conquest of 1804. For further discussion on the series, illustrated in full, see S. Ray and J. P. Losty, 15 Paintings Depicting the Adventures of Hanuman on Lanka from the Ramayana, London, 2016. Paintings from this series recently sold at Christie's New York 23 March 2022, lot 475, and Christie's London, 27 October 2022, lot 106. See the previous lot for another painting from this series.