Page 80 - Indian and Himalayan Art Mar 21, 2018 NYC

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A LADY AND HER DUENNA ILLUSTRATION FROM A RASIKAPRIYA SERIES: MUGHDA
GULER SCHOOL, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1810 PROSHITA BHARTRUKA NAYIKA
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, the reverse inscribed with KANGRA, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1820
the numbers 46 and 59 Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper
7¬ x 5¡ in. (19.3 x 13.8 cm.) Painting 8¬ x 6 in. (22 x 15 cm.); folio 11¡ x 8¬ in. (28.8 x 21.8 cm.)
$8,000-12,000 $10,000-15,000

PROVENANCE PROVENANCE
Bonham’s London, 24 April 2012, lot 284. Mandi Royal Collection.
Private collection, Germany.
The subject of the present painting could be an illustration of a scene from the
Rasikapriya of Keshav Das, written in 1591. The work centers around heroes The devanagari inscription in the margin reads mugdha proshita patika 70.
and heroines (nayakas and nayikas) and their interactions which are frequently After a line of takri the reverse repeats the devanagari title followed by twelve
emotionally charged. In the present painting the nayaka is absent but the lines of devanagari verse with Keshav Das’s classifcation of nayikas into eight
intensity of the moment is conveyed in the look between the two women. The types (ashta nayika).
face of the duenna is particularly well executed.