A portrait of a Sikh shawl trader, by Bishan Singh, India, Kashmir, circa 1867

Ex-private collection, Paris

Christie's, Paris, 5 April 2006, lot 661

Bishan Singh came from a family of artists working in Punjab in the second half of the nineteenth century. Although mainly working in Lahore and Amritsar, the family is also known to have worked in the neighbouring princely states of Kapurthala, Patiala and Nabha. Bishan Singh and his brother, Kishan Singh, worked as muralists at important Sikh shrines in Amritsar such as the Akal Takht and the Golden Temple. The Exhibition of Arts and Crafts held at Lahore in 1864 displayed ten pictures by Bishan Singh including durbars of Ranjit Singh, Sher Singh and the Municipal Committee of Amritsar (W.G. Archer, Paintings of the Sikhs, London, 1966, p.61).

The inscription on this painting not only gives the artist's name but also Kashmir as the location. This is important as it is the first painting that firmly places the artist operating in Kashmir where he also probably produced the ‘Kashmir Shawl' paintings series for the 1867 Paris Exposition. Eight of these Kashmir paintings were exhibited at Kyburg Ltd. London in 1988 and four were sold in these rooms, 10 October 1988, lots 11-14. It is possible that this painting of a shawl trader could be part of a larger, now dispersed set. In the catalogue for the eight paintings exhibited at Kyburg Ltd., Toby Falk described the paintings thus: “Detailed pictures, painted on the scale of these eight, were seldom executed for the British or the French. The popular sets of occupations by Sikh artists often showed weavers of a general kind at work, and sometimes Kashmiri women spinning wool, but never the specific subjects of shawl manufacture. Indeed, had it not been for the Paris Exhibition of 1867, the present pictures would not have been commissioned. Few Sikh paintings of this period are signed, and artists personal styles are therefore seldom identifiable. For a commission of this importance however, the most reputable artists in Lahore would have been employed' (London 1988, foreword).

Other depictions of Kashmir Shawl production include an illustration of a Kashmir shawl weaving workshop, inscribed in Gurmukhi in the lower left corner with the name of Bishan Singh and dated vikram samvat 1931 (circa 1874 AD) in the Musée Guimet, Paris (acc. no.MA 12702). And another painting showing weavers arranging shawls in bales, in the style of Bishan Singh, circa 1860-70 sold in these rooms, 24 April 2024, lot 139.

For additional paintings by or attributed to Bishan Singh, see a durbar scene depicting 'Maharaja Sher Singh watching a dance performance', formerly in the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, now in the San Diego Museum of Art, (inv.1990.1348; B.N. Goswamy and C. Smith, Domains of Wonder, San Diego, 2005, fig. no.112, pp.262-3). A painting attributable to Bishan Singh, depicting ‘Dost Muhammad being received by Sher Singh in Lahore on his way to regain the throne of Kabul’, in the Kapany Collection (Susan Stronge 1999, no.189, pp.166-7). And 'a nautch being performed for Maharaja Sher Singh', from the private collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan (Canby 1998, no.145, p.186). See also examples in D. Toor, In Pursuit of Empire – Treasures from the Toor Collection of Sikh Art, London 2018, pp.280-5 and The Wallace Collection, London 2024, no.81, pp.122-3.