SECOND GENERATION AFTER MANAKU, GULER, PUNJAB HILLS, INDIA, CIRCA 1780-90

This preparatory sketch for a Bhagavata Purana is from the same series as a drawing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York described as being from the family of Manaku, and attributed to circa 1780-90 (acc.no.2021.50; previously sold as part of the Collection of Paul F. Walter, Christie’s, New York, 26-27 September 2017, lot 218). Court painting in Guler was dominated by a single family of artists through the 18^th century, beginning with Pandit Seu in the first decades and followed by his sons Manaku and Nainsukh. Their sons continued the tradition, working closely in the styles of their fathers. This drawing, and others of the series, is of the Manaku-style and can be attributed to the direct descendants of the master, probably the second generation of painters who continued to be employed in the Guler court atelier.

A related series of sketches from a Bhagavata Purana, with illustrations by Manaku, is extensively published and discussed by B.N.Goswamy in Manaku of Guler: The Life and Work of another great Indian Painter from a Small Hill State, New Delhi, 2017, pp.223-263 and 451-499, nos. C83-103 and B167-307).