Two fragments on cloth: Krishna and Balarama; Intertwined lovers in roundel, India, Orissa, early 18th century

This painting comes from a group of sketches and unfinished works which were produced in Orissa in the early eighteenth century. Two others also painted on a gesso-prepared cloth are in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum in Hyderabad, that were exhibited at the India, Art and Culture 1300-1900 exhibition in 1985 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Mittal suggests a link with the artist community at Puri, where painters produced sophisticated works for court patrons as well as murals and pilgrimage paintings featuring Hindu deities and illustrations to Hindu texts (see Welch, S.C., India, Art and Culture 1300-1900, New York 1985, pp.64-65, no.27). Another sold through these rooms 31 May 2011, lot 155.