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55 AN ILLUSTRATION TO THE SAT SAI OF BIHARI: TOSSING A FLOWER GARHWAL, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1790-1800 Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, Krishna and Radha play at throwing a fower at each other, the scene set in a palace courtyard, a female attendant watches the scene from the left, a herd of cows approaches a city by a lake in the background, with foral illuminated spandrels on yellow ground, within white rules with red and blue borders, the reverse with text in takri and devanagari scripts 9æ x 7in. (24.8 x 18cm.) £10,000-20,000 $15,000-28,000 €13,000-25,000 PROVENANCE: Acquired from Colnaghi, London, 1 September 1980 The Sat Sai or ‘seven hundred’ verses is an early vernacular text written in the early Braj Bhasha proto-dialect of Hindi. It follows in the tradition of religious texts focusing on the romance of Krishna and Radha. The work itself contains couplets on neeit (moral lessons), shringara (love) and most importantly bhakti (devotion). Bihari was a poet at the court of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan who was later invited by Raja Jai Singh of Amber to move to his court. It is at Amber that Bihari is supposed to have composed the Sat Sai. The Sat Sai is best known for a well-published series painted in Kangra dated circa 1785 which was originally in the Tehri-Garhwal Collection (see M.S. Randhawa, Kangra Paintings of the Bihari Sat Sai, National Museum, New Delhi, Bombay, 1966). The very frst image of that book is ‘Tossing a fower’, the same scene as the present painting. It appears that our painting and the following lot are however from Garhwal. Other paintings from this set, dated between 1790 and 1800 are published in W.G. Archer, Visions of Courtly India, Oxford, 1976, cat.20, pp.34-35; Karl Khandalavala, Pahari Miniature Paintings in the N.C. Mehta Collection, Ahmedabad, fg. 102; Rajput Miniatures from the Collection of Edwin Binney, 3rd, Portland, 1968, cat.89, p.115 and in Ivan Stchoukine, La Peinture Indienne à l’Epoque des Grand Moghols, Paris, 1929, pl.C. Another painting (depicting Radha bathing) was sold at Christie’s, London, 8 April 2008, lot 288 dated to 1810. Another was with Spink, Painting for the Royal Courts of India, 1976, cat.157, p.37 (Krishna seated on a terrace, catalogued as circa 1780-90) and a third is in a French private collection. The dating of this series seem to range between 1785 and 1800. The Lovelorn Heroine, a Sat Sai painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1971-86) is probably coming from a diferent set as it appears closer stylistically to the 1785 Kangra series mentioned previously. It is dated between 1780 and 1790. However it may also suggests that more than one artists worked on this Sat Sai series over the span of many years, between the last years of the 1780s up to 1800. The oval format of these paintings originate from Guler and becomes widespread in the late 18th century, with increasingly complex decoration in the corners. Kangra or Guler artists very probably moved to Garhwal around that time. The daisy-petal form of the fower tossed by Radha in the present painting appears to be a Garhwal convention, as seen on the tree foliage in the Binney 3rd painting discussed above. Another convention are the boldly apparent breasts beneath the bodices. For an illustration from the same series, see the following lot in this sale.
56 AN ILLUSTRATION TO THE SAT SAI OF BIHARI: QUEST FOR THE LOVER IN MOONLIGHT GARHWAL, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1790-1800 Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, Radha and a female companion stand on a palace wall, their brightly coloured robes stand out against the grey walls, Radha raises her hand to her face, a crescent moon appears behind a mountain at top, with foral spandrels on red ground, within white rules with blue and red borders, the reverse with three lines of devanagari script, mounted, framed and glazed 9æ x 7in. (24.8 x 18cm.) £10,000-20,000 $15,000-28,000 €13,000-25,000 PROVENANCE: Acquired from Colnaghi, London, 1 September 1980 57 RADHA ON A TERRACE GARHWAL, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1800 Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, she sits on a foral carpet laid on a marble terrace, she wears pink robes, two attendants seated in front of her, a hilly landscape in the background with fowering trees, a fountain amidst a fower bed in the foreground, within black rules with blue and red borders, the reverse with two lines of black takri script 10æ x 7æin. (27.4 x 19.7cm.) £4,000-6,000 $5,700-8,500 €5,000-7,500 PROVENANCE: Acquired from Colnaghi, London, 1 September 1980 See the preceding lot in this sale for a short discussion on this series. 37
Page 1 and 2: ARTS OF INDIA King Street 26 May 20
Page 4 and 5: SPECIALISTS AND SERVICES FOR THIS A
Page 6 and 7: PROPERTY FROM A GERMAN FAMILY COLLE
Page 8 and 9: 5 5 A PORTRAIT OF A FATHER AND HIS
Page 10 and 11: FOUR DOUBLE-SIDED PAGES FROM A DECC
Page 12: 12 AN IMPRESSIVE AND FINE MUGHAL TE
Page 15 and 16: The complex and dominant technique
Page 17 and 18: RAJPUT PAINTING THE SCHOOL OF PAINT
Page 19 and 20: 21 MAHARANA BHIM SINGH IN PROCESSIO
Page 21 and 22: 25 24 MAHARAO RAM SINGH II OF KOTAH
Page 23 and 24: A EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION OF IN
Page 25 and 26: 29 AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SE
Page 27 and 28: 34 VALLABHACHARYA’S VISION ON THE
Page 29 and 30: Rao Indrajit Singhji (1727-1762, r.
Page 31 and 32: 43 A PORTRAIT OF A MARATHA NOBLE GW
Page 33 and 34: 48 A RAMPAGING ELEPHANT SAWAR OR KO
Page 35 and 36: 52 MAHARANA SANGRAM SINGH IN A LAKE
Page 37: The following eight paintings were
Page 41 and 42: 60 SULTAN IBRAHIM ADHAM VISITED BY
Page 43 and 44: PAHARI PAINTING THE WORD PAHARI TRA
Page 45 and 46: 64 AN ILLUSTRATION TO THE BHAGAVATA
Page 47 and 48: 67 A GOLD MERCHANT STYLE OF SAJNU,
Page 49 and 50: 72 AN ILLUSTRATION TO A KRISHNA SUD
Page 51 and 52: 74 MAHARAJA RANBIR SINGH AND A COUR
Page 53 and 54: VOTIVE TEXTILES FROM NORTH WEST IND
Page 55 and 56: 80 A PICCHVAI FOR THE AUTUMN FESTIV
Page 57 and 58: 82 A RARE PILGRIMAGE MAP OF VRAJ AN
Page 59 and 60: 84 A JAIN ILLUSTRATION FROM THE SHR
Page 62 and 63: ~87 A RARE IVORY FIGURE OF PARVATI
Page 64 and 65: ~90 AN INDO-PORTUGUESE IVORY AND BO
Page 66 and 67: 92 TWO LARGE ENAMELLED GOLD FIGURES
Page 68 and 69: Ψ97 A RUBY-INSET GOLD AND BRASS EL
Page 70 and 71: 101 101 A LARGE SILVER REPOUSSÉ BO
Page 72 and 73: 107 SHUJA’ AL-DAWLA AND HIS SON A
Page 74 and 75: 111 111 SIXTEEN PORTRAITS OF RAJPUT
Page 76 and 77: 115 115 A BRAHMINY KITE CALCUTTA SC
Page 78 and 79: 117 118 117 SHIVA AND PARVATI KALIG
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