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Lot Essay
This bold and vibrant painting is the only scene of a group of performers in the Fraser Album. It is full of wonderful expression and vitality - as if a spectator at the original performance, one can almost hear the music and the beat of the drum.
Storytelling and music-making were vital parts of Indian culture. In this painting, set against a whitewashed wall and beneath a canopy, a group of figures perform in the courtyard of the residence of a minor prince, identified on the fly-leaf inscription simply as ‘Mirza Mughal Sahib Bahadur’. Whilst musicians clap and play instruments, a man dances and a youth recites an accompanying tale. Two chubdars (ushers) lean on long staffs on either side of them. One can imagine that opposite the performers, the owner of the house might be sitting watching – perhaps celebrating an important occasion, such as a marriage or the birth of a son. Large dhurries, of the type that one sees on the ground here, were often used by affluent classes for special occasions such as these (Chaldecott 2003, p.45). The intention here though is not to focus on the patron, or indeed the event, but on the spectacle and the brilliantly varied group of performers.
Like so many of the characters depicted in the Fraser album, each figure in our painting has a distinct identity and has been carefully observed. From the knowing look of the old man playing the stringed instrument to the slightly uncertain youth, perhaps the son of the principle dancer and his understudy, they all have distinct personalities. The white garments that provide contrast with the strong colours of the turbans, waistbands, and trousers are exquisitely rendered. As Goswamy and Fischer note, there are elements here that feel borrowed from European work – “the frontality, the interest in shadows, the shading in the faces and dresses, [and] the variety and ease of attitudes…but the eye and the hand that register the scene are very Indian” (Goswamy and Fischer 1987, no.108, p.215). The individual inscriptions on the folio identify the various performers. There are three generations of one family within the troupe - the central Storyteller is depicted here with his father and his son, indicating that the profession was one shared by an entire family. The father and son appear to be particularly richly dressed with necklaces, bazubands and patterned trousers, marking them out as special, and perhaps better renumerated, members of the troupe.
Although nautch scenes are well known amongst Indian paintings of this period, and many examples are included within this catalogue, very few concentrate on male performers. More often men are depicted as the musicians accompanying female dancers. Elements of this composition were borrowed later by artists, including Mazhar Ali Khan, who painted a number of works for the Metcalfe album (Kaye 1980, p.66). In that depiction, the central dancing figure, whose arm bends up over his head like ours, holds a dupatta veil. The inscription below it reads, ‘Mimicks, imitating Nautch or Dancing Girls’.
Storytelling and music-making were vital parts of Indian culture. In this painting, set against a whitewashed wall and beneath a canopy, a group of figures perform in the courtyard of the residence of a minor prince, identified on the fly-leaf inscription simply as ‘Mirza Mughal Sahib Bahadur’. Whilst musicians clap and play instruments, a man dances and a youth recites an accompanying tale. Two chubdars (ushers) lean on long staffs on either side of them. One can imagine that opposite the performers, the owner of the house might be sitting watching – perhaps celebrating an important occasion, such as a marriage or the birth of a son. Large dhurries, of the type that one sees on the ground here, were often used by affluent classes for special occasions such as these (Chaldecott 2003, p.45). The intention here though is not to focus on the patron, or indeed the event, but on the spectacle and the brilliantly varied group of performers.
Like so many of the characters depicted in the Fraser album, each figure in our painting has a distinct identity and has been carefully observed. From the knowing look of the old man playing the stringed instrument to the slightly uncertain youth, perhaps the son of the principle dancer and his understudy, they all have distinct personalities. The white garments that provide contrast with the strong colours of the turbans, waistbands, and trousers are exquisitely rendered. As Goswamy and Fischer note, there are elements here that feel borrowed from European work – “the frontality, the interest in shadows, the shading in the faces and dresses, [and] the variety and ease of attitudes…but the eye and the hand that register the scene are very Indian” (Goswamy and Fischer 1987, no.108, p.215). The individual inscriptions on the folio identify the various performers. There are three generations of one family within the troupe - the central Storyteller is depicted here with his father and his son, indicating that the profession was one shared by an entire family. The father and son appear to be particularly richly dressed with necklaces, bazubands and patterned trousers, marking them out as special, and perhaps better renumerated, members of the troupe.
Although nautch scenes are well known amongst Indian paintings of this period, and many examples are included within this catalogue, very few concentrate on male performers. More often men are depicted as the musicians accompanying female dancers. Elements of this composition were borrowed later by artists, including Mazhar Ali Khan, who painted a number of works for the Metcalfe album (Kaye 1980, p.66). In that depiction, the central dancing figure, whose arm bends up over his head like ours, holds a dupatta veil. The inscription below it reads, ‘Mimicks, imitating Nautch or Dancing Girls’.