An illustration to a Bhagavata Purana series: Krishna fluting with cowherds, India, Rajasthan, Bikaner, circa 1690-1710

This delightful illustration depicts Krishna fluting in the foreground with his brother Balarama to his left and three cowherds from the village playing along. The cows gathered around the figures seem to be enjoying the music. A group of gopis surrounding Radha at centre left of the painting appear to have heard the music as well and are trying to get Radha to join Krishna and his friends.

The second line of devanagari script on the reverse identifies the subject as ‘Book Ten, Chapter 21, page 30’ from the Bhagavata Purana. The painting belongs to a large, dispersed Bhagavata Purana series which was produced at the Bikaner court over a long period of time and exhibits strong Mughal pictorial influences. The meticulous detailing, miniature figures, and the pale green colour of the background in the present lot are Mughal inspired features. Work on this series is likely to have begun during the reign of Maharaja Anup Singh (r.1669-98) and ended with Maharaja Sujan Singh (r.1700-36). Several artists at the royal Bikaner atelier would have been involved in the production.

Paintings from this series are in public and private collections worldwide. Examples are illustrated in Pal 1978, no.25, pp.96-97; Colnaghi 1978, no. 61, p.54, illus. p.92; Ehnbom 1985, no.68, pp.148-9 (from the Ehrenfeld Collection); Topsfield (ed.) 2004, no.60, pp.154-5; McInerney et al., 2016, no.25, pp.100-1 (in the Kronos Collections). For paintings which have sold at auction, see Sotheby’s New York, 21 September 1985, lot 405; 25 March, 1987, lot 143; 22 March 2002, lot 19 (from the Gloria Katz and Willard Huyk Collection); and more recently, 22 September 2020, lot 367 (from the Estate of H. Peter Stern).