Page 146 - September 20th 2021, Indian and Himalayan Art Christie's NYC

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF CAROL SUMMERS
464
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM THE ‘SHANGRI’ RAMAYANA
(STYLE III) – RAMA AND LAKSHMANA SEATED WITH
SUGRIVA AND VIBHISANA
NORTH INDIA, PUNJAB HILLS, KULU OR BAHU (JAMMU),
CIRCA 1700-1730
Folio 8¬ x 12¬ in. (22 x 32 cm.)
Image 7√ x 11Ω in. (20 x 29.2 cm.)

$12,000-18,000

This illustration is probably from the Lanka or Sundara Kanda, the
fifth book of the Ramayana. It depicts Rama with blue skin, seated
with his younger brother Lakshmana. Behind the brothers are
Sugriva, the king of the monkeys, and Vibhishana, Rama’s ally and
the future king of Lanka.
This series of paintings is known as the 'Shangri' Ramayana because
it was once in the possession of the Rajas of Shangri, a branch of
the Kulu royal family. Scholars have debated over the origin of this
Ramayana series. W.G. Archer initially found Kulu to be the most
likely origin. According to the family tradition of Raja Raghubir
Singh, the pictures were painted in Kulu during the reigns of Raja
Jagat Singh and Raja Bidhi Singh. On the basis of style and date,
Archer distinguished four painting classifications within the series.
The present folio, which is probably from the Sundara or Lanka
Kanda has been executed in ‘Style III.’ Archer describes it as a “style
of lush exuberance” and says it was chiefly used to illustrate jungle
scenes as well as the adventures of Hanuman and the monkey army
in Lanka (W.G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, 1973,
Vol. I, pp. 325-329). B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer have, more
recently, argued that the paintings should be attributed to Bahu on
account of the figurative similarities with Raja Kirpal Dev and Raja
Anand Dev of Bahu (B.N. Goswamy and E. Fischer, Pahari Masters –
Court Painters of Northern India, Zurich, 1992, pp. 76-81).
For three other folios from the series, executed in ‘Style III,’ see T.
McInerney, S. Kossak, N. Haider, Divine Pleasures: Painting from
India’s Rajput Courts – The Kronos Collections, (exhibition catalogue),
New York, 2016, cat. no. 58-60, pp. 168-173. With the background
reduced to a bare minimum, the ‘Style III’ folios have clear narrative
action. The dense forms and bright colors derive from the ‘Style I’
illustrations of the Early Bahu Master.
The series was dispersed in 1961. A very substantial proportion of
the series, 168 folios, are in the National Museum in New Delhi.
Other examples are in a number of collections including the Bharat
Kala Bhavan, Varanasi, the British Library, London, the Victoria and
Albert Museum, London, the Rietberg Museum, Zurich, the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,
the San Diego Museum of Arts (Edwin Binney 3rd Collection), the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Philadelphia Museum
of Art and the Portland Museum of Art, as well as in several private
collections. Another folio from the 'Shangri' Ramayana series, Style
IV, sold at Christie's New York, 20 March 2019, lot 695 for $37,500.