Page 95 - 2020 Sept 22 Himalayin and Indian Works of Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Works of Art | Sotheby's

white muslin jamas, ubiquitous in the humid climate of Bengal. Riders at the front of the train point spears at a target off-scene, as
a horseman gallops forward on the right. One of the horsemen bringing up the rear holds a banner with a meen a’lam or fish-
shaped standard.

Above the procession, on the upper left, are a group of figures, so delicately drawn as to be barely discernible, sheltering from
the midday heat in a grove of shady trees. In the farther distance hunting preparations take place near a pond filled with
waterfowl. Beyond gently sloping hills, tall palm trees, some with bent trunks, break the horizon line, with puffy clouds floating
beyond.
This extremely fine painting from Murshidabad displays elements of naturalism – evidenced in the detailed depiction of the land
and people – as well as perspective, with the elements of the landscape disappearing to a vanishing point. Another very similar
composition, possibly by the same artist(s), from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, was sold at Sotheby's London, May 31, 2011,
lot 109. For two other relatable examples in the British Library, London, see T. Falk and M. Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India
Office Library, London, 1981, pps. 200 and 489, cat. 374 i & ii.

Robert Skelton in a personal correspondence has remarked that the style of this artist/workshop recalls the work of Dip Chand.
Based on the historical record we might surmise that the Nawab pictured herein is Najm ud-daula, son of Mir Ja'far, who ruled as a
dedicated British vassal. For another painting from Murshidabad now in the collection of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, see L.
Leach, Mughal and other Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, London, 1995, vol. 2, no. 7.103, pp. 768, 788-9.

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