Page 170 - March 23 2022 Boinghams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED WEST COAST COLLECTION
473
A PAINTING OF KRISHNA SPYING ON THE BATHING RADHA
NORTH INDIA, PUNJAB HILLS, KANGRA, 1820-1825
Folio 10 x 7√ in. (25.4 x 20 cm.)
Image 7¿ x 5¿ in. (18.1 x 13 cm.)
$20,000-30,000
PROVENANCE:
Radha Krishna Bharany, Amritsar, May 1942.
The William and Mildred Archer Collection, London by 1976.
Christies’ London, 23 September 2005, lot 68.
Simon Ray Ltd., London, November 2012, cat. no. 60.

EXHIBITED:
"Visions of Courtly India: The Archer Collection of Pahari Miniatures," 1976-
1978 at University Art Museum, Austin, Des Moines Art Center, Seattle Art
Museum, St. Louis Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Institute
for the Arts, Houston, Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences, Peoria,
Illinois, Denver Art Museum, Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, and Fine Arts
Museum of the South, Mobile.
LITERATURE:
W.G. Archer, Visions of Courtly India: The Archer Collection of Pahari
Miniatures, 1976, pp. 84-5, no. 46.
Radha squats on a low bathing platform, grasping her shoulders as a maid
approaches her with a scrubbing cloth. A second maid screens her with a
green and gold textile, while glancing at Krishna, who is spying on the intimate
moment. He gestures to the maid, as if they have an understanding he may
partake as voyeur from the balcony.

This painting perhaps belongs to a Sat Sai series, where we see this subject
often illustrated. In discussing a similar folio, M.S. Randhawa expounds,
“Radha is the Symbol of the human soul, which longs for the realization of
God, who is Krishna.” The subject here teases at Radha’s current blindness to
Krishna, who in turn is able to witness her fully.
Although Radha is semi-clothed in the present example, this Kangra painting
delights in the feminine grace epitomized in Guler nude toilette scenes, such
as lot 471 in this sale.

W.G. Archer, Visions of Courtly India: The Archer Collection of Pahari Miniatures,
1976, cover and p. 85.
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