Prahlad Bubbar

Prahlad Bubbar Indian Miniature Paintings and Asia Week New York March 10 - 19 2016 Masters of 19th Century Photography Exhibition held at Arader Galleries 1016 Madison Avenue Recent Acquisitions New York 10075 Preface On the occasion of Asia Week 2016, it is a pleasure to return to New York with a fine and diverse selection of classical Indian paintings dating from 1600 – 1825 and early photographs of India. Together they pro- vide a vivid glimpse of life in the Subcontinent. Highlights this year include works from the Mughal, Deccan and Rajput Courts. An allegory of youth and fertility: a newly discovered Golconda painting of circa 1680 depicts a young woman offering an apple to her child. A sublime pleasure pavilion of courtly splendor is found in the large and refined album page ‘Ladies celebrate Holi’, commissioned by Antoine Polier at Lucknow, a Swiss adventurer in India in the 1780s. Women also take center stage in two intimate, jewel-like paintings from Udaipur that depict temple interiors. A sublime portrait made for the Emperor Jehangir, and a sensitive and highly perceptive Afghan family by the Fraser artist represents the pinnacle of achievement in Indian painting. From the Mughal courts that continued to flourish in the 18th century, is a delicate painting of court ladies visiting a holy man, of circa 1720, where the artist paints in the earlier style associated with Shah Jahan. A dazzling elephant fight by the gifted painter Mir Kalan Khan displays an otherworldly realm. Two vibrant Shahna- ma leaves illustrate the best of luxury manuscripts being made in the late 18th century. They retain the most luminous mineral pigments. Master drawings from Guler in the Punjab Hills by the great painter Manaku, and Ragamala drawings by the Sirohi master display the fluid line of the Indian brush. The exhibition concludes with an exceptional group of photographic works by Raja Deen Dayal, recently researched by Deborah Hutton. A representative collection of his oeuvre – thirty-five albumen prints by India’s leading photographer of the 19thcentury. Shubha and Prahlad Bubbar London, February 2016 8 Catalogue Acknowledgements BN Goswamy Deborah Hutton Jerry Losty Helen Loveday Shiva Mihan Miguel Pacheco Richard Shellabear Robert Skelton Avani Sood Prahlad Bubbar Indian and Islamic Art 33 Cork Street Mayfair, London W1S 3NQ +44 (0)20 7494 3144 www.prahladbubbar.com [email protected] 1 A Young Woman offers an apple to her child Golconda. Deccan. India Last quarter of the 17th century Opaque watercolour and gold on paper 22.5 x 15 cm A vivid and intimate scene of the zenana is captured With trade came foreign contacts and “an altogether in the image, where a young royal maiden receives different style of painting came to the region, still to her child and offers him an apple. They are seated in be better understood within the context of Deccani an open courtyard as the breeze sways the leaves of traditions – works with European themes, such as the the plantain and palm trees on a warm summer day. Holy family, Madonna and Child…” Clouds seem to be building up as the pre-monsoon approaches. The picture is framed within a lyrical ar- Closely related works include the Dancing Girl chitectural setting with a painterly depiction of white formerly in the Welch collection, and the Sleeping marble arches, and gold borders, the energetic line Maiden and maid in the Museum fur Islamsiche of the tiled floor and slightly tilted golden charpoy Kunst in Berlin, both published in Haidar and create a sense of depth. Zebrowski. There is little doubt our painting comes from the same workshop and was likely made for a The women wear diaphanous muslins and elegant Mughal patron. Our painting subsequently ended up printed textiles with floral motifs, that Golconda in a Rajasthani collection as a number of important became renowned for and were a speciality of the Deccani painting did, this is evident from the vibrant kingdom’s eastern coastal zone. They are dressed in red borders. What ties them together apart form the finery and jewelled from head to toe with ornaments strong visual and stylistic connection, in Zebrowski’s of southern and Maratha taste. Their curvaceous words is the ‘alluring tropical world that springs to bodies, narrow waists and elegant long limbs are cel- life, the luxurious languid pace. Delicate twists of ebrated by the artist with minute details, with a razor loosened garments and serene expressions suggest sharp, fluid line and the use of stippling and shading. both inner contentment and sexual joy” The wide hips and elegant postures are reminiscent of a medieval pan-Indian aesthetic of fertility. An inscription in nasta’liq on the reverse bears the Provenance: Private collection, UK words ‘haft sin’ meaning the seven s’s from the auspi- cious Persian table of ‘nowruz’. This is a reference to the apple or Sib, symbol of youth and fertility. Is this References: image an allegory youth and fertility? Persian traditions and culture was very much alive among the Haidar and Sardar, Sultans of the Deccan. 1500-1700. elite of Golconda. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2015. Pp252-53 After the young Sultan Abdullah Qutb shah signed Zebrowski, Mark. Deccani Painting. Sotheby’s 1983. the deed of Submission to Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1630, there was a period of stability and trade, as well as the various arts and crafts flourished in Golconda. 11 2 Ragini Khambavati Attributed to the Sirohi Master. Drawing with red ochre pigment on paper Sirohi, c. 1680 22.5 x 16.5 cm A ragamala or ‘garland of flowers’ is an illustration of various musical modes of Indian music. Each drawing or painting illustrates a poem that evokes the mood of a specific raga. These poetic verses usually describe the sentiment or mood that is associated with each raga, while suggesting the time of day or night as well as the season when they are to be per- formed. 1 This elegant preparatory drawing rendered in sind- huri qalam, sanguine, is most likely that of Ragini Khambavati, a relatively little known ragini of Raga Malkos, which is often depicted inconsistently. In this fluid drawing, the Hindu god Brahma is clearly identifiable with his four crowned heads as he holds the vedas in two of his four arms, and raises the third as if holding the rosary, seated on a lotus. He is being revered in a palatial setting by a lady.2 She bows before him in veneration while another lady who is her attendant stands behind her holding a water pot and a flywhisk. The deity is seated in a pavilion with steps leading up to it, while an ewer and pots of water can be seen below it. This is a preparatory sketch for a ragamala painting, which is evident from the writing on its surface, which would have served as instructions for the painter for the colours to be used. This drawing is a fine example of the iconography and style of ragamalas from the kingdom of Sirohi which are usually simple, immediate and bold compositions, with imagery often spilling into the borders edge, as is seen here. The figures have small faces with full cheeks and pursed lips. 14 Under the rule of Akheyraj II (1620-73) and his grandson, Bairisal (1676-97), Sirohi saw a thriving and vibrant painting atelier. Most paintings done in the Sirohi style are ragamala manuscripts, making it evident that this subject was a favourite. This pref- erence for ragamalas extends beyond the produc- tion of manuscripts, as ragamala imagery profusely decorates the upper cornice of a room in the Sirohi Palace. 3 Unlike most other schools that followed a prescribed iconography, the Sirohi school made use of employed local, popular musical names for some of their images. The fluidity of line in this sketch is characteristic of the finest Rajput works, and testimony to an assured understanding of form and iconography. In addition, drawings give an opportunity to the viewer to exam- ine the technique and draughtsmanship that under- lies the paintings. 1 Catherine Glynn, Robert Skelton, Anna L. Dallapicco- la, Ragamala paintings from India: From the Claudio Moscatelli Collection, London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2011, pp. 13-14 2 An earlier painting of the same ragini, dated to 1605 in the Mewar Chawand style is in the collection of the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.0587) and has been published in Indian Court Painting 16th-19th century, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997, p. 42. 3 Glynn, Skelton, Dallapiccola, 2011, p. 60. 15 16 3 Princely Women visit a holy Man Mughal. India. Circa 1720-30 Opaque pigments and gold on paper Inscription, Persian: Tasvir-i darvish siyasi Folio 47 x 34 cm Painting 23.5 x 15 cm Set in an open landscape, this painting shows a scene of an ascetic being visited by ladies. A group of four ascetics are shown occupying a marble pavilion under a tree. The most venerated ascetic appears to be the one who is seated on a tiger skin in padmasa- na, with his hands in dhyanamudra, and eyes closed in deep meditation. He has long locks, a long white beard and wears a loincloth. Offerings of coconuts and fruits have been placed before him. He is proba- bly the mystic Siyasi, as is suggested by an inscription in nastaliq painted in black in a golden cartouche on the upper border of the painting. An attendant stands behind him bearing a flywhisk. Another bearded ascetic with long hair is seated next to the tree with a piece of paper in hand.

Load more