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Lot Essay
This splendid portrait of the dancing girl Malaguire has become one of the most famous of all of the Fraser Album portraits, due to the wealth of surviving contextual evidence that surrounds it.
In 1815, at a nautch at the residence of Bhawani Shankar, a high-ranking official of the Marathas who had resettled in Delhi, James Baillie Fraser was particularly impressed by one of the nautch girls, Malaguire. On 19th August he wrote, “Malaguire distinguished herself much again both in the simple nautches and in the Bearers dance. I have ordered her picture to be done in one of her attitudes…” (quoted in Archer and Falk 1989, p.37). James does not mention there who the artist was to be but we know that a portrait of Malaguire by Lalji was done, from another of James’ diary entries a week later, on 26 August, ‘I have had Malaguire the Nautch woman here today to sit for her picture and am to get Lalljee to take it’. Although there were two portraits of Malaguire in the Fraser album (the other in a Private Collection, published Archer and Falk 1989, p.127, fig.125), there can be no doubt that this is the one to which James refers. Executed in a distinctive painterly style this is an extraordinarily vivid work in which the famous dancer adopts the culminating pose of the nautch, holding out her long, light dupatta veil.
Despite their evident skill, the identities of the artists who contributed to the Fraser album are largely undocumented. The only name that has been found is that of Lalji, who painted only three portraits (Archer and Falk 1989, pl.15 and 124 and fig.11). Lalji had already been asked by James to do a portrait of William, writing that he “takes likenesses remarkably well”. This painter, James adds “was a pupil of Zafanies [John Zoffany, who toured India from 1783-89 as a portraitist and who is further discussed in the footnote to lot 52] and does not disgrace his teacher…” (quoted in Archer and Falk 1989, p.37). Although James did not much admire the portrait of William, he wrote that “Soophie’s and Malaguire’s pictures are both capital.”
In their recent publication, Shaffer and Sharma identify that Lalji (ca.1780-1825), and his son Hulas Lal (ca.1785-1875) were itinerant artists who moved between Delhi, Banaras, Patna, Murshidabad and Calcutta, and came to "mix Mughal and British techniques in varying degrees" (Shaffer and Sharma 2024, p.103). Indeed he is referred to as “Lall-jee of Patna” by Reginald Herber (1783-1826) who encountered Lalji’s work in Banaras. Perhaps thanks to his association with Zoffany, it is clear that Lalji was a much sought after portraitist in European circles.
In 1815, at a nautch at the residence of Bhawani Shankar, a high-ranking official of the Marathas who had resettled in Delhi, James Baillie Fraser was particularly impressed by one of the nautch girls, Malaguire. On 19th August he wrote, “Malaguire distinguished herself much again both in the simple nautches and in the Bearers dance. I have ordered her picture to be done in one of her attitudes…” (quoted in Archer and Falk 1989, p.37). James does not mention there who the artist was to be but we know that a portrait of Malaguire by Lalji was done, from another of James’ diary entries a week later, on 26 August, ‘I have had Malaguire the Nautch woman here today to sit for her picture and am to get Lalljee to take it’. Although there were two portraits of Malaguire in the Fraser album (the other in a Private Collection, published Archer and Falk 1989, p.127, fig.125), there can be no doubt that this is the one to which James refers. Executed in a distinctive painterly style this is an extraordinarily vivid work in which the famous dancer adopts the culminating pose of the nautch, holding out her long, light dupatta veil.
Despite their evident skill, the identities of the artists who contributed to the Fraser album are largely undocumented. The only name that has been found is that of Lalji, who painted only three portraits (Archer and Falk 1989, pl.15 and 124 and fig.11). Lalji had already been asked by James to do a portrait of William, writing that he “takes likenesses remarkably well”. This painter, James adds “was a pupil of Zafanies [John Zoffany, who toured India from 1783-89 as a portraitist and who is further discussed in the footnote to lot 52] and does not disgrace his teacher…” (quoted in Archer and Falk 1989, p.37). Although James did not much admire the portrait of William, he wrote that “Soophie’s and Malaguire’s pictures are both capital.”
In their recent publication, Shaffer and Sharma identify that Lalji (ca.1780-1825), and his son Hulas Lal (ca.1785-1875) were itinerant artists who moved between Delhi, Banaras, Patna, Murshidabad and Calcutta, and came to "mix Mughal and British techniques in varying degrees" (Shaffer and Sharma 2024, p.103). Indeed he is referred to as “Lall-jee of Patna” by Reginald Herber (1783-1826) who encountered Lalji’s work in Banaras. Perhaps thanks to his association with Zoffany, it is clear that Lalji was a much sought after portraitist in European circles.