Arts of the Islamic World & India
Arts of the Islamic World & India
PROPERTY FROM A PRESTIGIOUS EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Auction Closed
October 23, 01:24 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
gouache heightened with gold on paper, margins trimmed, laid down on later paper
painting: 13 by 19cm.
leaf: 15.5 by 21.3cm.
This scene depicts a royal horse being attended to by three grooms. One of them holds its reins while the other two are shoeing him with nails. The popularity of horse portraits, often showing the horse with one or more grooms or attendants, grew from Persian origins in the sixteenth century and spread to India with the influx of Safavid artists after Humayun's sojourn at Shah Tahmasp's court. Abd al-Samad, one of the artists brought to India by Humayun, was famous for his paintings of horses. A drawing of a groom leading a horse, ascribed to ‘Abd al-Samad and dated to circa 1585, is in the collection of the Musee Guimet in Paris (illus. A.Okada, Imperial Mughal Painters, Paris, 1992, no.63, p.66).
The composition of the present lot is closely comparable to another early Mughal painting of a royal horse with three grooms, dated to circa 1575-90, formerly in the Khosrovani-Diba collection and sold in these rooms, 19 October 2016, lot 10. The painting has recently been attributed by John Seyller to the Mughal artist Mukhlis. Our painting is also very similar to a Mughal tinted drawing of a horse with grooms in the British Museum, London, dated to circa 1600 (inv. no.OA 1942 1-24 01; illus. in David Alexander (ed.), Furusiyya, Vol.II, Riyadh, 1996, no.168, p.202). The composition is a mirror image of the present lot with a similar depiction of the horse and the kneeling groom, along with the variety of tools on the ground. For another comparable early seventeenth century Mughal portrait of a harnessed and tethered horse, attributable to Govardhan, see Sotheby’s London, The Sven Gahlin Collection, 6 October 2015, lot 14. The horse is depicted in profile in a similar manner, wearing an elaborate ceremonial harness with a pommel on the saddle mounted with a black horse-hair plume, and a smaller feather plume between the ears.
It is possible that our painting is by a Kashmiri artist or by one influenced by the style of the Mughal artist referred to as the ‘Kashmiri Painter’. The latter is known to have worked on the illustrations of the Padshahnama, now in the Royal Collection (RCIN 1005025). See, for comparison, folios 47A, 166B, 205B, 206A (illus. in M.C. Beach & E. Koch, King of the World: The Padshahnama, London, 1997, p.32, 86, 102-3). The similarities between this artist’s work and the Kashmiri Painter can be observed in the darker colour palette employed for the figures, the style and pattern of the turbans, and their shoes with exaggerated pointed ends. The faces are not as shaded but the eyebrows tilting slightly upwards on the inner side is thought to be an influence of Bukhara painting on Kashmiri artists.
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