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Lot 27

Kanwal Krishna
(1910-1993)
Untitled (Harry Staunton)

4 June 2025, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £5,120 inc. premium

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Kanwal Krishna (1910-1993)

Untitled (Harry Staunton)
signed 'Kanwal 15.2.40 Lhasa' lower right
watercolour on paper
25.9 x 19.7cm (10 3/16 x 7 3/4in).

Footnotes

Provenance
Property from a private collection, UK.

Krishna was a significant yet often overlooked figure in Indian art history. Born in pre-Partition Punjab, he trained at the Government College of Art and Craft in Calcutta between 1933-1939. Deeply drawn to the poetic and spiritual dimensions of the landscape, Krishna became known for his delicate watercolours that captured the quiet majesty of nature with a lyrical sensibility. His work took a historic turn when he travelled to Tibet in 1940, becoming one of the first Indian artists to paint the region with first-hand experience. During this pivotal journey, he was granted the extraordinary privilege of depicting and filming the enthronement ceremony of the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, making him the first artist ever officially allowed to record such a sacred event. It was in Lhasa that he met Harry Staunton, who had been appointed Captain (on deputation) and accompanied the British Political Officer Basil Gould to witness the installation. Staunton and Gould were among the only two Westerners to have attended the ceremony, and Krishna's sensitive portrait of Staunton, painted during this time, stands as a rare and historically significant document—bridging art, diplomacy, and Tibetan history. His works from Tibet remain vital for their ethnographic, cultural, and aesthetic value, marking Krishna as not only a master of landscape and portraiture, but also a quiet chronicler of a world on the cusp of profound change.

To see other works by Kanwal Krishna being offered in these rooms see Bonhams, The Collection and Archive of Sir Basil Gould CBE, 5th June 2025, lots 35-49.

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