Description 

A rare double-sided workshop drawing from the Guler school of the Punjab Hills, dating to the late eighteenth century. Executed entirely with the brush, the sheet preserves studies associated with two distinct themes: a ceremonial wedding procession on the recto and an intimate princely court scene on the verso.

The recto depicts musicians, attendants, and an armed figure accompanying a distressed female participant in a wedding procession. The composition is likely related to the Bhagavata Purana episode in which Kamsa attacks his sister Devaki after hearing the prophecy that her future son would bring about his death. The subject appears in the celebrated Guler Bhagavata Purana manuscripts produced earlier in the eighteenth century, demonstrating the continued importance of this narrative within the artistic tradition of the Punjab Hills.

The verso shows a prince seated with his lover beneath a cusped arch within a palace interior. Rendered with fluid brushwork and remarkable economy of line, the scene exemplifies the poetic and courtly sensibility characteristic of mature Guler painting. Rather than finished compositions, both sides appear to record working studies used within an artist’s atelier for the development of manuscript illustrations and independent paintings.

Workshop drawings of this type are considerably rarer than completed miniatures and provide valuable evidence of artistic practice. The calligraphic brush line, psychological sensitivity, and naturalistic characterization of the figures are hallmarks of the artistic legacy of Pandit Seu and his celebrated sons Manaku and Nainsukh, whose family transformed painting in the Punjab Hills during the eighteenth century.

Condition

Overall age toning, staining, surface wear, and abrasions to both sides. Sketches remain visible though faint in places. Dealer stamp, inventory inscriptions, and traces of former mounting preserved on the verso. Condition consistent with age and workshop use.

Provenance

Kapoor Curios, Delhi (dealer’s stamp and inventory annotations verso), c. 1950s–1960s.
Acquired through the New York art trade in the 1990s.
Private Collection, New York, since the 1990s.

References 

Archer, W. G. Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills. London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1973.

Chandra, Pramod. Indian Miniature Painting: The Collection of Earnest C. Watson and Jane Werner Watson. Madison: Elvehjem Art Center, University of Wisconsin, 1971, no. 236.

Goswamy, B. N., and Eberhard Fischer. Nainsukh of Guler: A Great Indian Painter from a Small Hill-State. Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 1997.

Goswamy, B. N., and Eberhard Fischer. Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India. Zürich: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1992.

Sotheby’s. Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art. London, 23 October 2019, lot 37, An Illustration to the Bhagavata Purana: Kamsa Attacks Devaki During Her Wedding Procession, attributed to a master of the first generation after Nainsukh, Guler or Kangra, c. 1780.

Previous Record | Back to Works on Paper | Next Record