A group of twenty clay figures of servants and tradespeople, by Rakhal Das Pal
Krishnagar, Bengal, late 19th Century
Krishnagar, Bengal, late 19th Century
decorated in polychrome, clothed and accessorised, on rectangular bases, including a musician, a policeman, two fish-sellers, a vegetable seller, a saddler, a snake-charmer, servants, a 'head clerk' and an 'office baboo' (notes in pencil on the bases), five with labels bearing the inscription Rakhal Das Pal, Ghoorne, Krishnanagar, Nuddra, Bengal
the tallest figure 26.5 cm.; seated figures 14.5 cm.(20)
the tallest figure 26.5 cm.; seated figures 14.5 cm.(20)
Sold for
£6,600
inc. premium
Footnotes
- Highly naturalistic sculptures of this type were made at Krishnagar, a village near Calcutta, as well as at Hatwa, Datan (near Saran), Muzaffar-pur, Dacca, Burdwan, and later, Lucknow and Poona. Like Company School paintings, these highly naturalistic sculptures prefigure photography and were made as souvenirs for Western patrons as early as the 1820s. For a brief discussion of such figures and an illustration of village market scene with figures now in the Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, see Stuart Cary Welch, India: Art and Culture 1300-1900, New York 1985, pp. 91-2, fig. 45). The set illustrated there is attributed to Rakhal Das Pal, an artisan who worked in the clay modelling district of Ghurni/Ghoorne in Krishnagar.
Other similar groups of figures in varying sizes have been sold through these rooms in recent years (Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 5 July 2006, lot 302; 28th April 2005, lot 594 and 16th October 2003, lot 353; 25th October 2007, lot 511).
Category: Islamic and Oriental Art / Islamic and Indian Art
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