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Lot Essay
This evocative and perceptive drawing of holy men depicts a subject that was popular in Mughal India in the late 16th and early 17th century. Delicately coloured in the nim qalam technique, it brilliantly succeeds in drawing the viewer into the meditative world of the two ascetics, whose stark landscape setting enhances the psychological power of the image.
THE DRAWING
In a sparse and somewhat barren landscape, two Hindu holy men with beards and long, matted hair stand in contemplation. They wear coarse, patched cloaks with vertical threads. Each wears a necklace hung with coloured strips of cloth. The leading figure wears a pair of sandals on his feet and holds a long staff which rests on a boulder, while the figure behind is barefoot and holds an alms bowl, a simple fan, and, tucked down his back, a bowl attached to a rod. All of these garments and accoutrements appear in other Mughal images of such holy men. A cheerful dog trots at their feet. In front of them a craggy outcrop of rock blocks their path - perhaps symbolically as well as physically. A small, meagre tree with a skeletal trunk grows from the rock, along with two withered bushes. A stream flows around the base of the rock. In the distance behind the rocky horizon are three leafy trees and a townscape with towers and domes rendered in a style strongly influenced by European printed imagery. The leading figure looks into the distance as if in a trance, while his younger companion gazes almost unnervingly towards the viewer, drawing us in to his inner world. The figures appear as if frozen in time and place, conscious of the separation between the material world and their own spiritual worlds.
In an eloquent description of this drawing in 1987, Goswamy and Fischer commented “The work has much delicacy, not only of form, but of feeling…There is an emphatic feeling of bareness…[a] remarkable delicacy of modeling, and the painter shows great skill in the manner in which he handles the faces of the two men and renders their garments. But what is specially affecting is … the feeling that permeates the work. The holy man, one senses, is clearly in search of that path which many before him have trodden. It is as if he has seen a light from a distance, but does not quite know how to reach it yet. He has turned his back on the world and there is no return to it; but what road he has to wend his way on is not yet clear. There is no unease in his situation, only uncertainty… The painter distinguishes the states of mind of the holy man and his younger disciple with wonderful sensitivity… The two men are not common mendicants but men of God…” Goswamy and Fischer 1987, p.166).
Goswamy and Fischer (ibid) and Canby (1998, p.109) dated the drawing to the 1580s, and in terms of subject matter and style it is very close to others of the period. Canby commented that it owes much to Basawan’s incisive studies of ascetics, and cites the psychological acuity of the work as well as compositional and stylistic elements found in Basawan’s drawings, such as the lively folds and swooping hem of the cloaks, the small jaunty dog, the townscape in the distance and the general sense of studied naturalism (Canby 1998, pp.109-10). There are several comparisons in style and subject among Basawan’s signed or attributed drawings, including Majnun and an emaciated horse in the Indian Museum, Kolkata (see Welch 1976, no.8, pp.36-7), A mendicant and a holy man in the Cleveland Museum of Art (2013,296, see Quintanilla et al 2017, p.197, fig.4.57), A Shepherd offers a flower to a holy man in the British Library (IOL, Johnson Album, 22,13, see Losty and Roy 2012, fig.34, p.73), A Sadhu in the Gopal Narain Library, Bharatpur (see Sen 1982, fig.1), Ascetics Making Bhang in the Harvard Art Museums (2002,209,72, see Welch and Masteller 2004, no.19, p.85), and Tobias and the Angel (Galloway 1994, cat.1). Other Mughal drawings depicting related subjects are as follows: A Gathering of Yogis by Daswanth, from a late Akbar-period royal album (Royal Library, Windsor, RCIN1005062, see Hannam 2018, no.6, pp.68-9); Three Holy Men in a Landscape by Shankar (Sotheby’s, London, 27 October 2020, lot 425); A man and an ascetic with a dog by Shankar (Asian Arts Museum of San Francisco, 1988.27); An Ascetic with his disciples attributed to Kesu Khurd (Fondation Custodia, Institut Néerlandais, Paris, see Okada 1989, nos.41, pp.158-9); An ascetic and his young disciple (ibid, np.42, pp.160-1); and Three ascetics in discussion (ibid, no.43, pp.162-3). For discussions of Hindu holy men in Mughal art, see Ernst 2013, and Mallinson 2013.
THE CALLIGRAPHY AND ALBUM SETTING
The meaning of the poetry on the reverse (see above) is appropriate for subject of the drawing, and Goswamy and Fischer commented that “The calligraphy is of more than usual interest, for even though it starts in praise of God in the approved Islamic fashion, and the verses are in Persian, it is signed by Jugal Kishor, clearly a Hindu. One is initially startled to see a Hindu name appended to lines in a script and a language that one does not easily associate with Hindus in Mughal India, but …. Like the Hindu painters working in collaboration with, or under the tutelage of, Muslim masters, Hindu calligraphers must also have bent themselves to the task of acquiring these skills.” (ibid). The illumination surrounding the calligraphy is of 18th century style, as are the gold-flecked borders. The calligraphy was thus probably penned and the folio assembled between approximately 1750 and 1800. No calligrapher named Jugal Kishor appears in the principle Mughal records, but it is interesting to note that a secretary called Jugal Kishor is recorded as having been associated with Col. Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier in Awadh and Bengal in the 1770s. Jugal Kishor was one of Polier’s business administrators, and Polier’s letters show that they regularly corresponded in Persian (see Alam and Alavi 2001, “Jugal Kishor” as indexed). Secretaries sometimes combined roles as calligraphers and it is plausible that the calligraphy on this page was penned by the same Jugal Kishor, either during the years he worked with Polier (1773 to 1776), or prior to this or afterwards. For further information on Polier, see lots 51 and 52 in this sale. Many albums with similar gold-flecked borders were acquired by Europeans in Awadh and Bengal in the late 18th century, including one of the Warren Hastings Albums, which has almost identical dimensions to the present lot (see, e.g., Cleveland Museum of Art, acc.2013.333 and 2013.7592, see Quintanilla et al 2017, cat. 71, p.338; LACMA, M.77.154.3; Brooklyn Museum, 69.48.2; also Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Phillippica, 26 November 1968, lots 367-407), one of the Gentil Albums (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris), the Large Clive Album (Victoria and Album Museum), and many loose folios, such as pages in the Musée Guimet, Paris (MA12234), LACMA (M.2005.159), the Victoria and Albert Museum (IS.2015-1951; IS.19.-1958; IS.15-1958), and Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (In 45.8).
THE DRAWING
In a sparse and somewhat barren landscape, two Hindu holy men with beards and long, matted hair stand in contemplation. They wear coarse, patched cloaks with vertical threads. Each wears a necklace hung with coloured strips of cloth. The leading figure wears a pair of sandals on his feet and holds a long staff which rests on a boulder, while the figure behind is barefoot and holds an alms bowl, a simple fan, and, tucked down his back, a bowl attached to a rod. All of these garments and accoutrements appear in other Mughal images of such holy men. A cheerful dog trots at their feet. In front of them a craggy outcrop of rock blocks their path - perhaps symbolically as well as physically. A small, meagre tree with a skeletal trunk grows from the rock, along with two withered bushes. A stream flows around the base of the rock. In the distance behind the rocky horizon are three leafy trees and a townscape with towers and domes rendered in a style strongly influenced by European printed imagery. The leading figure looks into the distance as if in a trance, while his younger companion gazes almost unnervingly towards the viewer, drawing us in to his inner world. The figures appear as if frozen in time and place, conscious of the separation between the material world and their own spiritual worlds.
In an eloquent description of this drawing in 1987, Goswamy and Fischer commented “The work has much delicacy, not only of form, but of feeling…There is an emphatic feeling of bareness…[a] remarkable delicacy of modeling, and the painter shows great skill in the manner in which he handles the faces of the two men and renders their garments. But what is specially affecting is … the feeling that permeates the work. The holy man, one senses, is clearly in search of that path which many before him have trodden. It is as if he has seen a light from a distance, but does not quite know how to reach it yet. He has turned his back on the world and there is no return to it; but what road he has to wend his way on is not yet clear. There is no unease in his situation, only uncertainty… The painter distinguishes the states of mind of the holy man and his younger disciple with wonderful sensitivity… The two men are not common mendicants but men of God…” Goswamy and Fischer 1987, p.166).
Goswamy and Fischer (ibid) and Canby (1998, p.109) dated the drawing to the 1580s, and in terms of subject matter and style it is very close to others of the period. Canby commented that it owes much to Basawan’s incisive studies of ascetics, and cites the psychological acuity of the work as well as compositional and stylistic elements found in Basawan’s drawings, such as the lively folds and swooping hem of the cloaks, the small jaunty dog, the townscape in the distance and the general sense of studied naturalism (Canby 1998, pp.109-10). There are several comparisons in style and subject among Basawan’s signed or attributed drawings, including Majnun and an emaciated horse in the Indian Museum, Kolkata (see Welch 1976, no.8, pp.36-7), A mendicant and a holy man in the Cleveland Museum of Art (2013,296, see Quintanilla et al 2017, p.197, fig.4.57), A Shepherd offers a flower to a holy man in the British Library (IOL, Johnson Album, 22,13, see Losty and Roy 2012, fig.34, p.73), A Sadhu in the Gopal Narain Library, Bharatpur (see Sen 1982, fig.1), Ascetics Making Bhang in the Harvard Art Museums (2002,209,72, see Welch and Masteller 2004, no.19, p.85), and Tobias and the Angel (Galloway 1994, cat.1). Other Mughal drawings depicting related subjects are as follows: A Gathering of Yogis by Daswanth, from a late Akbar-period royal album (Royal Library, Windsor, RCIN1005062, see Hannam 2018, no.6, pp.68-9); Three Holy Men in a Landscape by Shankar (Sotheby’s, London, 27 October 2020, lot 425); A man and an ascetic with a dog by Shankar (Asian Arts Museum of San Francisco, 1988.27); An Ascetic with his disciples attributed to Kesu Khurd (Fondation Custodia, Institut Néerlandais, Paris, see Okada 1989, nos.41, pp.158-9); An ascetic and his young disciple (ibid, np.42, pp.160-1); and Three ascetics in discussion (ibid, no.43, pp.162-3). For discussions of Hindu holy men in Mughal art, see Ernst 2013, and Mallinson 2013.
THE CALLIGRAPHY AND ALBUM SETTING
The meaning of the poetry on the reverse (see above) is appropriate for subject of the drawing, and Goswamy and Fischer commented that “The calligraphy is of more than usual interest, for even though it starts in praise of God in the approved Islamic fashion, and the verses are in Persian, it is signed by Jugal Kishor, clearly a Hindu. One is initially startled to see a Hindu name appended to lines in a script and a language that one does not easily associate with Hindus in Mughal India, but …. Like the Hindu painters working in collaboration with, or under the tutelage of, Muslim masters, Hindu calligraphers must also have bent themselves to the task of acquiring these skills.” (ibid). The illumination surrounding the calligraphy is of 18th century style, as are the gold-flecked borders. The calligraphy was thus probably penned and the folio assembled between approximately 1750 and 1800. No calligrapher named Jugal Kishor appears in the principle Mughal records, but it is interesting to note that a secretary called Jugal Kishor is recorded as having been associated with Col. Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier in Awadh and Bengal in the 1770s. Jugal Kishor was one of Polier’s business administrators, and Polier’s letters show that they regularly corresponded in Persian (see Alam and Alavi 2001, “Jugal Kishor” as indexed). Secretaries sometimes combined roles as calligraphers and it is plausible that the calligraphy on this page was penned by the same Jugal Kishor, either during the years he worked with Polier (1773 to 1776), or prior to this or afterwards. For further information on Polier, see lots 51 and 52 in this sale. Many albums with similar gold-flecked borders were acquired by Europeans in Awadh and Bengal in the late 18th century, including one of the Warren Hastings Albums, which has almost identical dimensions to the present lot (see, e.g., Cleveland Museum of Art, acc.2013.333 and 2013.7592, see Quintanilla et al 2017, cat. 71, p.338; LACMA, M.77.154.3; Brooklyn Museum, 69.48.2; also Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Phillippica, 26 November 1968, lots 367-407), one of the Gentil Albums (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris), the Large Clive Album (Victoria and Album Museum), and many loose folios, such as pages in the Musée Guimet, Paris (MA12234), LACMA (M.2005.159), the Victoria and Albert Museum (IS.2015-1951; IS.19.-1958; IS.15-1958), and Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (In 45.8).