Page 119 - Indian and Himalayan Art, March 15, 2017 Sotheby's NYC
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PROPERTY FROM THE LANIER COLLECTION marble domed temple or hermitage with gold The subject is unusual. The mynah bird is a
vessels spread near him. He is intently looking “talking” bird - capable of imitating human
A SADHU AND A MYNAH BIRD at a small mynah bird standing on the cut branch speech and appears here locked in a conversation
India, Pahari, Bilaspur, of a nearby tree - who stares earnestly in return. with the holyman - either receiving or delivering
mid-18th Century They converse in silence. Another mynah a message. A talking bird - like a winged angel
observes from a higher bough. A ight of insects - may be seen metaphorically as a conduit or
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper cross the sky. Against a mossy green ground the messenger communicating between heaven and
image: 8¼ by 5¾ in. (21 by 14.6 cm) feathery branches of a tall willow tree arch over earth. Another earlier painting from the Deccan
folio: 9⅔ by 6¾ in. (22.8 by 15.2 cm) the top.
nds our sadhu’s female Shaivite counterpart
PROVENANCE The principal background palette of mossy green depicted as a yogini with a mynah bird (Chester
and white, capped with a white band and cloudy Beatty Library, Dublin: inventory no. IIA.31)
Acquired 1990 blue sky - as well as compositional devices like standing in an surrealistic dream landscape
the curiously orderly linear ight of insects and mysteriously conversing with a tame mynah.
A very delicate painting of an sadhu (holyman) arching wispy willow are indicators of a Bilaspur
clad in a yellow dhoti. He ngers a mala (rosary) origin (previously suggested in conversation with $ 5,000-7,000
of prayer beads and his hair pulled back and the present owner by Toby Falk).
rolled into a small topknot. Seated on a deerskin
rug on a white terrace outside of a ne white
