Page 102 - Indian and Himalayan Art, March 15, 2017 Sotheby's NYC

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PROPERTY FROM THE LANIER COLLECTION A lady seated on a couch - distractedly spreading Inscribed on another, earlier Malwa ragamala
ower petals on a large green leaf laid before her painting of Malasri from the Seventeenth Century,
MALSRI RAGINI: A FOLIO FROM A a Devanagari couplet reads:
RAGAMALA SERIES as she waits for her beloved. Within the gleaming
India, Rajasthan, Jaipur or Central white marble con nes of the zenana, consoled by “Malasri and her maids... have the fragrance of
India, circa 1740-50 her kneeling sakhi (con dante) and two maidens. lotus blossoms,
A handmaiden waving a chowrie ( ywhisk) looks and even in the daytime,
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper away expectantly, perhaps hearing approaching they dream of their lovers and of nocturnal
image: 9¾ by 6¼ in. (22.8 by 15.2 cm) footsteps. An empty bed on an upper oor. Two lovemaking.”
folio: 11¾ by 8½ in. (27.9 by 20.3 cm) musicians play below.
For related works, see K. Ebeling, Ragamala
PROVENANCE Ours is an exquisitely re ned example of a Painting, Basel, 1973, p. 261 and p. 38-9, cat. 261.
ragamala series produced at Jaipur (Amber) Also see an illustration of Gurjari Ragini from the
Oscar Leneman Collection in the mid Eighteenth Century. According to same series in A.L. Dallapiccola and E. Isacco,
Acquired 1981 Klaus Ebeling the iconography of Malasri is rare Ragamala, Paris, 1977, cat. 34.
and was used exclusively in Jaipur during the
Eighteenth Century. $ 5,000-7,000

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