Oliver White
Head of Department
Lot 275W
A large trophy painting of a tiger Udaipur, circa 1860
8 April 2014, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street£20,000 - £30,000
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A large trophy painting of a tiger
Udaipur, circa 1860
Udaipur, circa 1860
gouache on cotton, laid down on modern cloth, on stretcher
89 x 188 cm.; stretcher 91.5 x 191 cm.
89 x 188 cm.; stretcher 91.5 x 191 cm.
Footnotes
This life-size painting depicts an animal killed during a hunt. It reveals two silhouettes, one the more finished form and the other a faint outline. It is probable that this latter image represents the actual shape of the animal, perhaps as it was laid on the canvas and loosely sketched around. On top of this the artist has developed his own interpretation, capturing not just the physical form but also, in a sense, something of the animal's character.
Such a work is an example of the practice of the Mewari nobility of recording their hunting kills, as declarations of their skill and prowess. These paintings reiterate the important documentary function painting held before the advent of photography; in addition to their aesthetic value they served a practical purpose, as records of a particular event, scene or person.
It is unlikely that such works would have been hung permanently, but rather displayed in triumphant celebration and then stored for posterity. For another rare example of a cloth painting (in a more exaggerated form and style) of a tiger from Mewar, in the collection of Nahar Singh II of Devgarh and attributed to the mid-19th century painter Baijnath, see M. Beach (op. cit, below).
A larger painting depicting a tiger, also from Udaipur, but dated around a century earlier (1765-70) was sold in these rooms, Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 2nd October 2012, lot 174.
See:
A. Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur: Art Under the Patronage of the Maharanas of Mewar, Zurich 2001.
Milo Beach and Rawat Nahar Singh II, Rajasthani Painters: Bagta and Chokha, Master Artists at Devgarh, Zurich 2005, fig. 125.