North India, Rajasthan, Mewar

opaque pigments on paper, framed

In generally good conditions, creases and stains, tears to the borders, as viewed.
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This fantastical camel relates to other composite animal paintings produced in India during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. These studies are derived from a Mughal and Deccani prototype whose origins are found in earlier Persian miniature painting. The symbolic significance of this genre has still not been determined.

What is interesting about this example is the inclusion of bears within the composition, a feature most commonly associated with composite animal paintings produced in the Punjab Hills. For a further discussion of this group see Seyller 2011, p.64.

Other composite camels from Rajasthan are found in the Catherine Glynn Collection and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (Verma 1999, pp.71-75, figs.2&7). In these examples and the present lot, musicians are included within the composition. In the current painting the composite imagery is combined with Krishna iconography, with the god depicted seated atop the camel within a lotus flower flanked by peacocks. Del Bonta, in his article on Mughal composite animal painting, identifies Krishna and Kama as often being the riders of composite animals from the Hindu tradition (Verma 1999, p.69)