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Lot 194

A royal elephant and mahout
Kishangarh, late 18th Century

26 October 2020, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £1,912.50 inc. premium

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A royal elephant and mahout
Kishangarh, late 18th Century

gouache and gold on paper
210 x 277 mm.

Footnotes

Provenance
Sotheby's, Indian and Southeast Asian Art, New York, 19th September 1996, lot 384 (unillustrated).
Gunter Heil Collection, Berlin, 1996-2016.

A painting which emphasises the high status given to elephants amongst Mughal and other Indian rulers. The Mughals were the first to depict these beasts and their trappings specifically (for a group of several examples, see A. Topsfield, Visions of Mughal India: the Collection of Howard Hogdkin, Oxford 2012, nos. 20-25). Here the tradition is continued at Kishangarh. The markings in red-orange on the elephant's head denote that it is in rut, the colours placed around the glands secreting must. The serpentine marking just above the tusk seems to be associated with royal elephants at Kishangarh. The figure of the mahout is made artificially small, to emphasise the power and grandeur of his mount.

Additional information