Page 60 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

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RAJA PAHAR SINGH HUNTING BOAR A PORTRAIT OF A HUNTING DOG
MEWAR OR DEVGARH, LATE 18TH CENTURY MEWAR, 18TH CENTURY
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; recto inscribed with ink in Opaque watercolor and gold on paper.
Devanagari in the upper margin: raja sri pahar singh ji umdede sing- Image: 6 3/4 x 10 1/2 in. (17.1 x 26.6 cm);
horo ri surat ghodho chutere bhujaye sabe kunwar bana ri surat che. Folio: 8 x 11 7/8 in. (20.3 x 30.2 cm)
“Portrait of Raja Pahar Singh riding the horse Chaturbhuja. Portrait of
the Prince.” $1,000 - 1,500
Image: 10 1/4 x 14 7/8 in. (26 x 37.7 cm);
Folio: 13 x 17 3/8 in. (33 x 44 cm) His portrait indicates the dog was favored within Mewar’s court, not
only for his gold-bead collar and larger gold necklace with suspended
$3,000 - 5,000 floral pedants, but also for his well-groomed condition. The treatment
of his snout suggests the painter afforded him a greater sense of natu-
The pastel palette, lavish use of gold and treatment of the boar com- ralism than the hunting dogs depicted in various hunting scenes from
pares favorably with a hunting scene of Ari Singh, formerly in the How- Ari Singh through to Sajjan Singh; see Kossak, Indian Court Painting,
ard Hodgkin Collection, sold at Sotheby’s, London, 24 October 2017, New York, 1997, p.125, no.78, for a portrait of a hunting dog ac-
lot 91. Also compare a closely related late 18th-century unfinished companying Bhim Singh. Single portraits of favored animals with plain
hunting scene of Kunvar Anop Singh and Kunvar Bakhtavar Singh backgrounds were common throughout Rajput courts, and dogs were
(Beach & Singh, Bagta and Chokha, Zurich, 2005, p.67, fig.79.) particularly favored at Devgarh; see Tooth, Indian Paintings, London,
1974, no.64 and 1975, no.49 for dogs with similar ornamental collars.
Provenance
Navin Kumar Gallery, New York, 1980s Provenance
Private Rhode Island Collection Collection of George Andrew Spottiswoode (1827-1899), London
58 | BONHAMS Thence by descent to the current owner