Page 44 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

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AN ILLUSTRATION TO A BIHARI SATSAI SERIES AN ILLUSTRATION TO A BIHARI SATSAI SERIES
MEWAR, CIRCA 1719 MEWAR, CIRCA 1719
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper; two lines of Devanagari in Opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper; two lines of Devanagari in
the top register and numbered ‘367’. the top register and numbered ‘497’.
Image: 7 1/4 x 7 in. (18.3 x 17.7 cm); Image: 7 1/2 x 7 1/8 in. (19 x 18.1 cm);
Folio: 9 7/8 x 8 1/2 in. (25 x 21.5 cm) Folio: 10 x 8 3/4 in. (25.4 x 22.1 cm)

$5,000 - 7,000 $6,000 - 8,000
The painting depicts five nobles in discussion, each redolent of Amar In this painting a noble leaves his lover unsatisfied and distressed.
Singh II’s likeness, before a lake crammed with lilies, waterfowl, The turmoil and upset of their quarel is echoed by the divergent flight
and fish. For comparative example, see Topsfield, Court Painting at path of the blue birds above. Bihari Lal’s Sat Sai follows in the tradi-
Udaipur, Zurich, 2001, pp.143-4, no.144. A closely related composi- tion of religious texts exploring the romance of Krishna and Radha.
tion sold at Artcurial, Paris, 12 May 2015, lot 269. Others sold at It contains couplets on neeit (moral lessons), shringara (love), and
Bonhams, London, 6 October 2008, lot 390, Sotheby’s, New York, 28 bhakti(devotion). Bihari Lal was a poet at the court of Mughal Emperor
October 1991, lot 229 and Pundoles, Mumbai, 12 March 2014, lot 31. Shah Jahan. He later moved to the court of Raja Jai Singh of Amber.

Published Provenance
Ludwig Habighorst, Blumen – Bäume – Göttergärten, Ragaputra Edi- Private German Collection
tion, Koblenz, 2011, p.130, fig.100.

Exhibited
Blumen – Bäume – Göttergärten, Völkerkunde-Museum, Hamburg, 17
March - 27 October 2013.

Provenance
Private Collection, Germany

42 | BONHAMS