A Rathore Nobleman Riding a Leaping Stallion at Shikar, Rajasthan / Marwar (thikana style), circa 1820-40

Collection of Jacques et Claude Rohault de Fleury.

Sotheby's Paris, 23rd October 2020, lot 68.

This lively depiction of a nobleman on a galloping stallion, slashing with his tulwar at an already wounded male boar, is from a thikana (vassal fiefdom) of Jodhpur in the kingdom of Marwar during ashikar or wild animal hunt. Accompanied by two saluki hunting dogs nipping and biting the animal to bring it down. The hunter's white horse bravely charging in and barely escaping the boar's sharp tusks.

The work is executed in broad washes of yellow-green background color with a thin strip of green ground at bottom indicating a landscape with the figures outlined in dark black ink. The composition is caught in mid-gallop, stop-action and frieze-like.

The painting conveys the vitality and action of the hunt - which was considered as a potentially fatal pastime, given that close-up contact with ferocious wild animals like boar or tigers could easily maim or kill hunters getting too close. It was considered a high mark of Rajput valor to kill such an animal by hand with a sword or sometimes even a katar (fist dagger) which often required the kill to be mere inches from the animal's deadly tusks or teeth.

The painting is not inscribed and so our nobleman remains unidentified for now. However based upon his neatly trimmed mustache and beard, sharp straight nose, white muslin clothing with matching white turban with prominent feathered aigrette (turban ornament) and double strands of pearls around his neck, it tells us that the rider is probably a thakur of the Rathore clan of the Marwar ruling family. And partly based upon our painting's broader manner of execution and color palette, it was likely produced by painters working at a thikana or smaller provincial fiefdom - rather than at the capital Jodhpur

where the royal painting workshops were located.

For a detailed discussion of the paintings of Marwar and its various thikanas see Rosemary Crill Marwar Painting: A History of the Jodhpur Style, India Book House Ltd., Mumbai, 1999.