Page 214 - March 23 2022 Boinghams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED WEST COAST COLLECTION
488
AN ILLUSTRATION TO THE 'IMPEY' RAMAYANA: KEVAT
WASHES RAMA'S FEET BEFORE THEY CROSS THE GANGES
INDIA, BENGAL, MURSHIDABAD, CIRCA 1770
Folio 12æ x 5¬ in. (32.4 x 14.3 cm.)
Image 11Ω x 7æ in. (29.2 x 19.7 cm.)
$30,000-50,000
PROVENANCE:
Collection of Sir Elijah and Lady Mary Impey, Calcutta and London.
Collection of Sir Thomas Phillips Bt. (1792-1872), London.
Sotheby’s London, November 26, 1968, (part of lot 415).
Maggs Bros. London, August 1969, no. 168.
Private collection, Connecticut.
Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2012, lot 1173.
The Ramayana series from which the present painting belongs is named for
its patrons, Sir Elijah Impey (1732-1806), the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court in Calcutta from 1774-1790, and his wife Lady Mary Impey (1749-1818) a
British natural historian. The couple is most remembered for their commission
of a collection of large company school paintings of birds, animals, and native
plants, now revered as the Impey Album. The present series, along with
similarly composed Ragamala and Razmnama manuscripts, showcases their
broader interest in the arts of Bengal, diverting from the company school
aesthetic they are most associated with, in favor of a more regional style of
folk painting in Murshidabad.

The style, color palette and composition of the Impey Ramayana series mirrors
contemporaneous pata scrolls from Bengal, which uses a registered format
as a narrative device for epics such as the Ramayana and Bhagavata Purana.
Works of this style were quite unusual commissions for foreigners, who by
their own standards considered the Mughal and Company school ateliers
more refined. Nevertheless, the series is celebrated for its vivid color scheme,
bold execution and stylized figures.
The artists of this splendid series creatively use geographic features, such
as the mountain range and river stream to create narrative registers within
the painting. In the upper register, Rama and Sita kneel before an ascetic,
while Lakshmana respectfully stands behind them. In the lower register, the
boatman Kevat washes Rama’s feet before ferrying the trio across the Ganges.
His boat, with a tiger figurehead, awaits them in the foreground river.
The provenance of this painting is verified by the seal of Sir Elijah Impey
stamped on the verso. The series, which consisted of 44 paintings, was later
acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps Bt (1792-1872). The folios were much later
dispersed at auction at Sotheby’s London, 26 November 1968. Further pages
from this series are at the British Library (acc. no. Add.Or.5725), Los Angeles
Country Museum of Art (acc. no. M.72.88.3), and the Asian Art Museum, San
Francisco (acc. no. 2011.22).

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