
Oliver White
Head of Department
Sold for £25,062.50 inc. premium
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Head of Department
This unusually large, finely painted work depicts the ruler of Patiala seated, along with his son (later Maharajah from 1845 to 1862), listening to a holy man discoursing and reading from a pothi manuscript. What appears to be an under-drawing for the painting is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, formerly in the collection of A. K. Coomaraswamy. There is another version in the Kapany Collection (see P. M. Taylor, S. Dhami, Sikh Art from the Kapany Collection). For a painting showing the Karam Singh with Narinder Singh (also in the Kapany Collection), see S. Stronge (ed.), The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms, London 1999, p. 165, no. 188.
Additional note on provenance: Sotheby's, New York, 15th September 2011, lot 77.