Page 12 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

807
A FOLIO FROM A BHAGAVATA PURANA SERIES:
KRISHNA VENUGOPALA
ORISSA, CIRCA 1775-1800
Opaque watercolor on paper.
Image: 5 1/4 x 11 7/8 in. (13.3 x 30.2 cm);
Folio: 9 1/4 x 12 5/8 in. (23.4 x 32 cm)

$4,000 - 6,000
Krishna draws peacocks, monkeys, small birds, and deer
with the divine melody of his flute. The earth rises on
each side and the dark sky above curves to accentuate
the magnetic draw of the god and his power over all the
elements.

Two other pages from this series are in the Brooklyn
Museum of Art (1993.199 & 1990.185.1). Others were sold
at Christie’s, New York, 16 September 2008, lot 456 and
Bonhams, New York, 18 September 2013, lot 167.

Published
Ludwig Habighorst, Blumen – Bäume – Göttergärten,
Ragaputra Edition, Koblenz, 2011, p.43, fig.23.

Provenance
Sotheby’s, New York, 10 December 1981, lot 42A
807 Sotheby’s, London, 16 April 1984, lot 41
Private German Collection

808
MONKEY AND BABY
NORTH INDIA, LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY
Black ink and transparent pigments on paper; inscribed in
nasta’liq script reads Jim Baha’i” (Brother Baha’i ?) and
“’Uthman Ji Puri 5771 (or 1775)”.
20 1/2 x 30 in. (52 x 76 cm)
$5,000 - 8,000

The skillfully painted monkey runs energetically to the
right with her baby clinging to her underside. The work is
reminiscent, in scale and composition, of a monumental
portrait of the Monkey Husayni, painted in Udaipur, circa
1700, formerly in The Stuart Cary Welch Collection (see
Sotheby’s, London, 31 May 2011, lot 39). The two animals
portrayed also each wear a collar suggesting a gift made to
an important figure. In his discussion of the Udaipur painting,
Stuart Cary Welch links the portrait to earlier Mughal animal
studies developed by artists such as Mansur as well as to
the fashion for maintaining exotic menageries.
808
Provenance
Christie’s, London, 10 June 2013, lot 206

10 | BONHAMS