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Lot 1248

A SHALABHANJIKA COURT BEAUTY
DEVGARH, MEWAR, CIRCA 1730-50

17 – 24 September 2021, 12:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$2,550 inc. premium

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A SHALABHANJIKA COURT BEAUTY

DEVGARH, MEWAR, CIRCA 1730-50
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, with narrow black and red oval borders.
Image: 10 7/8 x 7 1/8 in. (27.5 x 18.1 cm), oval;
Folio: 12 7/8 x 8 7/8 in. (32.8 x 22.5 cm), oval

Footnotes

The sculpted celestial beauties (shalabhanjika) on the exterior of Mewar's 10th-/11th-century Hindu temples are thought to have inspired this popular subject in Devgarh murals and miniatures in the 19th century (Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur, 2002, p.225). That the upward stretching maiden, with jutting breasts and fanned sari, appears by a tree in this painting is an even surer reference to this ancient Indic motif.

The work is most likely by Baijnath who was appointed the master of the Devgarh atelier under Rawat Nahar Singh (r.1821-47). The subject happens to be Baijnath's first known painting, dated 1822 (Beach & Singh II, Rajasthani Painters Bagta and Chokha, 2005, p.94, fig.113). He also repeated it in an oval format on the painted walls of the Moti Mahal, Devgarh Palace, c.1845 (ibid., p.95, fig.115). In contrast to the work of his father, Chokha (a.1799-c.1826), Baijnath paints his eyes smaller and typically not as reddened at the sides as the present example along with several signed paintings from between c.1830-9 demonstrate (ibid., pp.196 & 98-100, figs.117, 120, 121 & 122).

Exhibited:
Small Paintings from Around the World, Chevron Gallery, San Francisco, 1997.
South Asian Rajput Miniature Paintings, Golden Gate University Gallery, San Francisco, 1999.

Provenance:
Private Collection of R. E. Lewis, San Francisco
Private Californian Collection, acquired from the above in 1973
On consignment with Doris Weiner, Inc., New York, in 2001

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