Page 103 - Bonhams Indian and Himalayan Art September 2013

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Maharana Ari Singh on a boar hunt
By Kesu Ram, Mewar, dated 1765-66
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; Wounded from previous blows,
the enraged boar sets upon the fallen attendant and begins to gore his
leg as the ruler and his royal riding partner are poised to deliver the death yellow rug, supported by a large bolster, wearing a tall, orange Marwari
blows; recto inscription: Ranaji Shri Ari Singh ji on horse Pitambar; verso
inscription: Picture of Shri Maharajadhiraj Maharana ji Shri Ari Singhji on a with saffron tilaka (sectarian mark) stripes, with a gold punch dagger inlaid
hunt... by the artist Kesu Ram, Samvat 1822 (circa 1765-66).
Folio: 10 x 6 in. (25.8 x 15 cm)
$4,000 - 6,000
Compare with another portrait by Kesu Ram of Ari Singh in the same
palette on a very similar caparisoned horse in the National Gallery of
Victoria (see Topsfield, Paintings from Rajasthan in the National Gallery
of Victoria, Melbourne, 1980, no. 163). Other equestrian subjects of the
ruler can be found in Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur, Zurich, 2002,
no. 182 and Sotheby’s, London, 26 April 1994, lot 44 and 23 April
1996, lots 43-8.
Provenance:
Estate of Henry Ginsberg
Acquired from Spink & Son, London, 1980s
152
Kunvar Sri Kisan in darbar with ministers and secretaries
Jodhpur, Marwar, circa 1740
Opaque watercolor and gold on card; verso with identification inscription
in black nagari script: ‘Sri Kisan’; The kunvar (prince) kneels on a small
turban decorated with a jeweled turah (crest), and his forehead is painted
with rubies tucked into his gold silk patka, and two scribes with paper and
writing implements kneel in front of the prince, while two Rajput clansmen,
exercising their right privilege of remaining seated in the prince’s presence,
are on his left, a servant fans the prince with a yak-tail whisk.
Image: 9 x 9 1/8 in. (23 x 23.4 cm)
$4,000 - 6,000
By the mid 17th century, the Rathor chieftains of Marwar were emulating
the etiquette of the Mughal emperors by holding darbars, or formal
audiences, with courtiers arrayed about them. This painting is from the
same school of artists as the painting The Darbar of Kunvar Rai Ram
Singh of Jodhpur, cica 1745-50, illustrated in Noey & Temos, Art of India
from the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, 1994, fig. 10,
p. 25. The heads are rendered in a stylized manner, in full profile and
with enlarged eyes. The luminously colored figure of the prince, which is
painted in an intentionally smaller scale, contrasts superbly with the turgid
colors of the ministers’ magenta turbans and with the simple green and
purple background.
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