Page 72 - Indian and Himalayan Art, March 15, 2017 Sotheby's NYC
P. 72
PEACOCKS AND
PLEASURE DOMES
BEAUTIES AND RARITIES OF INDIAN
PAINTING AND DRAWING FROM
THE LANIER COLLECTION
LOTS 264 326
Sotheby’s is proud to o er a special curated sale of Charles I. Seen here as a kindred spirit, Lanier’s was a
classical paintings and drawings of India carefully life of passionate interest in both art and music.
selected for their quality and rarity from the Lanier
Collection. Our sale contains many notable o erings. An early
Mughal painting “Emperor Humayun on a Hunting
The collection was formed over decades by an avid Expedition” adds to the small group of surviving
connoisseur of both Indian paintings and European paintings from the period of Emperor Humayun - a
old master drawings, who rst began acquiring work previously unknown to the scholarly community.
these works in the 1970s, the “golden” age of Indian
art collecting. This was a time when there was Also featured are two wonderful Pahari fragments:
remarkable availability in the market for exceptional “Leaping Chariot Horses” a lyrical work attributed
miniature paintings o ered at relatively modest to Nikka son of Nainsukh, and a tinted-drawing from
prices. Guler “Shiva and Parvati Share the Intoxicating
Datura Fruit” which stuns with its large-scale gures
In our collector’s words, the discovery of the magic so rarely encountered.
of Indian painting was “like a light went on - that
has never gone o ”. To him the visual relationship The remarkable Deccani “Yogini Holding a Fan” from
between Indian and European master drawings are Bijapur adds to the miniscule corpus of extant early
seamlessly interconnected in balanced symmetry. Seventeenth Century Bijapuri paintings depicting this
ethereal and subtle subject.
The Lanier Collection is named for the famous
Seventeenth Century English collector and We hope that collectors will enjoy this opportunity to
connoisseur of old master drawings Nicolas Lanier acquire works unseen in the marketplace for decades
(1588-1666) one of the rst serious art specialists in and will note the number of “discovery” items - works
the modern sense. He was also hailed as a musician which have been previously unknown or unseen.
and named a “Master of the King’s Musick” by King The Lanier Collection contains much to enjoy and
discover.
Studio of Raphael d’Urbino
70 SOTHEBY’S
