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Lot Essay
Bhavani Das began his career under Mughal patronage, perhaps first serving Bahadur Shah during his princely years and then after becoming emperor in 1707 (Navina Haidar, Bhavanidas, in Beach, Goswamy and Fischer, Masters of Indian Painting II, 1650-1900, Zurich, 2011, p.535). In 1719 he relocated to Kishangarh, perhaps following the death of his patron in 1715, where he remained active for at least another thirty years. His influence was transformative to the Kishangarh school of painting and he was later followed there by his son Dalchand and nephew Kalyan Das. For a painting by Dalchand see lot 102 from the current sale.
This portrait of Farrukhsiyar exhibits Bhavani Das's Mughal-trained sensibilities to portraiture but the expressive curved eyebrow and upright, slightly backward arching, posture are characteristic of the artist's time in Kishangarh (ibid, p.538). Our portrait is very similar to two other of the Emperor Farrukhsiyar. One is signed Bhavani Das and was sold from the Francoise and Claude Bourelier Collection at Artcurial, Paris, 4 November 2014, lot 243. The second, attributable to Bhavani Das and atelier, was sold in these Rooms, 10 June 2015, lot 13.
This portrait of Farrukhsiyar exhibits Bhavani Das's Mughal-trained sensibilities to portraiture but the expressive curved eyebrow and upright, slightly backward arching, posture are characteristic of the artist's time in Kishangarh (ibid, p.538). Our portrait is very similar to two other of the Emperor Farrukhsiyar. One is signed Bhavani Das and was sold from the Francoise and Claude Bourelier Collection at Artcurial, Paris, 4 November 2014, lot 243. The second, attributable to Bhavani Das and atelier, was sold in these Rooms, 10 June 2015, lot 13.