Page 91 - 2020 September 23 Himalyan and Southeast Asian Works of Art Bonhams

647 The landscape of various green hills divided by small rocky outcrops
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A BHAGAVATA PURANA SERIES: and dense vegetation was frequently employed in Bikaner by local
KING BAGIRATHA PLEADS WITH SHIVA TO artists emulating works from the Mughal court of the late 17th century.
BREAK GANGA’S FALL The opulent gold sash (patka) fanned out over Bagiratha’s knees
BIKANER, MID 18TH CENTURY follows a classic Mughal design of three red poppies with green vines
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper (cf. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983.494.9). Maharaja Anup Singh
9 7/8 x 7 1/2 in. (25 x 19 cm) of Bikaner, who fought for the Mughals in the Deccan, was a regular
at the court and brought artists who initiated a more refined style at
$8,000 - 12,000 Bikaner, especially artists such as Ruknuddin. Good comparisons
between the treatment of the ruler, minor rishis, and large foliage can
be found in a painting in the British Museum (1999,1202,0.3.8).
In his aspect of Gangadhara, Shiva is the ‘Bearer of the Ganga’,
shown with a waterspout rising from his hair. He calms the Ganga’s Provenance
mighty torrent in response to the pious actions of Bhagiratha’s, who Countess Sophy von Holstein Rathlow (sic.), Copenhagen (according
kneels before Shiva and is accompanied by Bramha, Hanuman, and to a label on the frame’s verso)
another god. Gifted 8 September 1893, ‘Til Erick(?) fra Aguete’, “From Erick(?) to
Aguete” (according to an inscription on the painting’s verso)

INDIAN, HIMALAYAN & SOUTHEAST ASIAN ART | 89