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A FOLIO FROM A BARAMASA SERIES:
THE MONTH OF MAGHA (JANUARY/FEBRUARY)
GARHWAL, CIRCA 1780-90
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; an attached flyleaf with a seven-line nagari inscription of
the corresponding poetic verse in black and red.
Image: 7 1/4 x 5 3/8 in. (18.3 x 13.6 cm);
Folio: 10 x 7 7/8 in. (25.2 x 19.9 cm)
$30,000 - 50,000
The lovers meet below a winter haze, wrapped in heavy, fire- and tiger-orange shawls. A
burgundy carpet with dazzling arabesques insulates their bare feet from the cold marble
pavilion. They greet one another, like the courting pigeons above Krishna’s head. Lush trees
frame Radha, with sinuous branches that reach up to a pair of deer grazing on the frosty
horizon, evoking the harmony between our couple.

Compared with the bleak colors of the painting of November/December that preceded it, which
is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum (IS.6-1960), this painting’s earth tones and promising
natural imagery usher in the tail-end of winter and the anticipation of spring. Perhaps, the
reversal of orange from inner to outer garments by each suggests the lovers are warming up to
the idea of spending evenings wrapped in each other’s arms out on the pavilion again?

This painting has an excellent pedigree, being formerly of the collection of Bill and Mildred
Archer, two eminent scholars of Indian court painting, who authored numerous seminal works.
It is from the same set as the cover illustration for Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills from
1973, as well as the aforementioned painting in the Victoria & Albert Museum, where Bill Archer
served as Keeper (Curator) of the Indian Section between 1949-59. He refers to this painting
without providing an image in the 1973 book, but otherwise published it heavily before and
after.

Published
W.G. Archer and D. Bhattacharya, Love Songs of Vidyapati, New York, 1963. pl.1.
Mildred Archer and W.G. Archer, Romance and Poetry in Indian Painting: A Loan Exhibition of
Indian Miniatures from the collection of Mildred and W. G. Archer, London, 1965, pl.51.
W. G. Archer, Pahari Miniatures: A Concise History, Oxford, 1975, col. pl. 37.
W. G. Archer, Visions of Courtly India: The Archer Collection of Pahari Paintings, Washington,
1976, p.26, pl.15.

Exhibited
Romance and Poetry in Indian Painting: A Loan Exhibition of Indian Miniatures from the
collection of Mildred and W. G. Archer, 26 May - 19 June 1965.
Visions of Courtly India: The Archer Collection of Pahari Paintings, A Travelling Exhibition
Circulated by the International Exhibitions Foundation, 1976-1978

Provenance
Ex-Mildred and W. G. Archer Collection, London, by 1963

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