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PROPERTY FROM THE LANIER COLLECTION PROPERTY FROM THE LANIER COLLECTION
A FOLIO FROM A BARAMASA SERIES MAHARAJA PRATAP SINGH OF SAWAR
India, Rajasthan, Nagaur or Northern Deccan, WITH A BIRDCAGE
circa 1710-30 India, Rajasthan, Ajmer, Sawar,
circa 1690-1700
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper
image: 9¼ by 5¾ in. (22.8 by 12.7 cm) Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper
folio: 9⅔ by 7¼ in. (22.8 by 17.7 cm) image: 7 by 5¼ in. (17.8 by 12.7 cm)
PROVENANCE PROVENANCE
Acquired 1990 Sotheby’s New York, 25 March 1987, lot 138
Two royal lovers - a nayika and a nayaka - meet in a tryst Maharaja Pratap Singh (r.1668-1707) of Sawar seated with
before a turreted domed pavilion. She o ers him a betel-nut folded legs on a gold and brown-veined marble throne-chair.
delicacy. In the hillside woods beyond a pair of tigers greet His favorite birdcage curiously half-covered below him. An
one another. An elephant pulls a tree branch rmly with his attendant stands behind in a red mughal-style pagri (cap)
trunk. The evening sky above turning dark blue and becoming holding another small cage and waving a peacock-feathered
turbulent. An illustrated folio from a Baramasa series (the morchal (ceremonial peacock-feathered fan).
songs of the seasons).
Only one portrait of Maharaja Pratap Singh’s predecessor,
A related Baramasa painting depicting the month of Maharaja Sundar Das (1606-1668), is known; see D. Mason,
Jyeshta (May-June) in the British Museum (accession no. Intimate Worlds, Philadelphia, 2001, p. 138-9, cat. 54. This
1999,1202,0.5.6) contains text, “The sun is so bright and portrait also idiosyncratically depicts the raja with a birdcage
scorching that the ve elements -- air, water, sky, earth and re - apparently a reoccurring motif in Sawar portraiture, given
have become one, that is as hot as re. The roads are deserted that Pratap’s successor, Maharaja Raj Singh (r. 1705-30) is
and the tanks are parched dry. Seeing that the elephants do also often depicted in the presence of a small birdcage. In our
not venture out. The cobra and lions sleep inside shelter in this painting, Pratap Singh is rendered with a greater degree of
weather. Powerful creatures become weak in this season and realism than others known from Sawar - his face is delineated
the whole world is at unrest. The poet Keshavdas says that the with great clarity and naturalistic shading.
elders are of the opinion that one should not venture outdoors
in this season.” (V. P. Dwivedi, Baramasa. The Song of Seasons For related works, see I. Pasricha, ‘Painting at Sawar and
in Literature and Art, 1980). Isarda in the 17th century,’ in Oriental Art, New Series, vol.
XXVIII, no. 3, Autumn 1982.
$ 4,000-6,000
$ 4,000-6,000
