Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 160
Two saluki hounds Kishangarh, circa 1750
12 November 2024, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£4,000 - £6,000
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Oliver White
Head of Department
Two saluki hounds
Kishangarh, circa 1750
Kishangarh, circa 1750
gouache and gold on paper, laid down on an album page with gold-sprinkled borders, inner margins ruled in red and black
painting 127 x 178 mm.; album page 215 x 320 mm.
painting 127 x 178 mm.; album page 215 x 320 mm.
Footnotes
Provenance
With Hobhouse Ltd., St. James's, London, 1980s (label on backboard).
Private UK collection.
The saluki (also referred to as the Arabian gazelle hound or Persian greyhound) hunts mainly by sight rather than the scent of its prey, and then by relying on its own speed. In India it was associated associated with royal and noble hunting and so often appears not only in hunting scenes, but also processions and equestrian portraits - and also (presumably as a mark of the esteem in which they were held) portrayed alone, as themselves.
For another Kishangarh depiction of a hunting hound (though there with the element of caricature found not infrequently in its painting) dated circa 1765, see Sotheby's, The Sven Gahlin Collection, 6th October 2015, lot 62. For a large Mewar depiction of a single standing saluki against a plain ground, second half of the 18th Century, see Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World and India, 24th April 2024, lot 129; for two further large Mewar depictions of a saluki, indicating the prestige associated with the breed, see Sotheby's, The Bachofen von Echt Collection: Indian Miniatures, 29th April 1992, lot 38; and Simon Ray, Indian and Islamic Works of Art, November 2014, no. 57. In both these works, the hounds wear jewelled collars - as in our example.