ARTS OF INDIA

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A RAJA ENJOYS A HUQQA DURING A COLD WINTER NIGHT
PAHARI SCHOOL, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1825-50
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the palace interior with a
European-style fre place in which burns a lively fre, a European style foral
carpet is laid on the foor, the Raja lies on a daybed, covered with a blanket
decorated with large fowers, a female attendant changes the coal and
tobacco of his huqqa, within black and white rules and red borders, mounted,
framed and glazed
9Ω x 5æin. (24.2 x 14.6cm.)
£6,000-8,000 $8,600-11,000
€7,500-10,000
PROVENANCE:
Acquired from Colnaghi, London, 5 June 1979
The subject of this painting, a Raja wrapped up tightly against the cold, is an
unusually intimate one for Indian painting. Other portraits of fgures clothed
in large blankets include a depiction of Bhup Singh with his Rani wrapped up
in the same quilt and attributed to Guler, circa 1795-1800, now in the Victoria
and Albert Museum (I.S. 202-1949; Visakha N. Desai (ed.), Life at Court:
Art for India’s Rulers, 16th-19th Centuries, Boston, 1985, no.75). A painting
attributed to Nainsukh, circa 1760 shows Balwant Singh in a tent at Nagrota,
similarly clothed and smoking a hookah in a manner similar to our portrait
(Kalpana Desai and Pratapaditya Pal, A Centennial Bouquet, Mumbai, no.84).
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AN ILLUSTRATED FOLIO FROM A GAJA SALOTE (ELEPHANT
ALMANAC): THE ELEPHANT SALHAI
JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN, NORTH INDIA, VS 1881/1824 AD
From an almanac, opaque pigments on paper, the elephant carrying his
mahout, harnessed and carrying a howdah, his head painted and bejewelled,
on blue background, within yellow, red and black rules, inscription in black
devanagari script at top, mounted, framed and glazed
The painting 7æ x 5Ωin. (19.7 x 14cm.) ; page 9º x 7Ωin. (23.5 x 19cm.)
£2,000-3,000 $2,900-4,300
€2,500-3,700
PROVENANCE:
Acquired from Colnaghi, London, 5 June 1979
The Gaja Salote (elephant almanac) is a manuscript that describes elephants
from diferent parts of the country, their qualities, diseases and treatments.
Another folio, depicting Gaindmala, an elephant from the eastern province
of Assam is in the Cincinnati Art Museum (Ellen S. Smart and Daniel S.
Walker, Pride of the Princes: Indian Art of the Mughal Era in the Cincinnati Art
Museum, Cincinnati, 1985, cat. 38). According to the manuscript’s colophon,
it was written by Shyam Vaid and completed in VS 1881/1824 AD. The
patron might have been Rao Asi Singhji of Mukhtapur. Other pages were
sold at Christie’s, London, 11 and 12 June 1984, lot 61 and 4 July 1985, lot 9.
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