RADHA AND KRISHNA ON A TERRACE, RAJASTHAN, KISHANGARH, CIRCA LATE 18TH CENTURY

Opaque watercolour and gold on cloth

Generally very fair condition. Some creasing, including one vertical and three horizontal fold lines, some flaking of pigments and surface pitting, edges frayed. As viewed.
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This monumental painting of Radha and Krishna encapsulates the essence of Kishangarh style. The slim, attenuated figures, the elongated facial features, the accentuated lotus eyes and the intense mood of lyrical romance are typical of the Kishangarh manner from the mid 18th century onwards.

The theme of this painting - a romantic scene of Radha and Krishna - was a popular one, and can be seen in various forms in other paintings of the period. The story of the romance between the ruler of Kishangarh, Raja Sawant Singh, and his consort Bani Thani (although denied in modern times, see Welch 1973, p.56) inspired many images in which Sawant Singh and Bani Thani were represented in the form of Radha and Krishna, enhanced by the fact that Sawant Singh retreated with Bani Thani in the second half of his reign to Vrindavan, the sacred groves of Krishna's childhood, there devoting himself to poetry and worship.

A painting identical in composition, scale, and for the use of cloth as the medium, is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (see Kramrisch 1986, no.75, illustrated in colour on page 82; Welch 1985, p.372; Untracht 1997, fig.1, p.10). A very similar depiction of the head and shoulders of Radha and Krishna is illustrated in Randhawa and Galbraith 1968, pl.20, p.102. Others showing Radha and Krishna painted in a similar style and in a variety of romantic settings are illustrated in Sharma 1974, cat.63, pl.37; Leach 1983, no.10; Pal 1978, no.43, p.132; Lalit Kala Series, portfolio No.22, and sale in these rooms, 14 December 1987, lot 76,

The distinctive style of the Kishangarh school, with accentuated facial features, receding foreheads and slim-waisted figures, had its beginnings in the first half of the 18th century, under artists such as Bhavanidas. A portrait of a horse of circa 1740, attributed to this artist by Falk, shows the equine equivalent of the style - an elongated body, over-arched back, slim neck and head, and carefully combed mane; see sale in these rooms 12 October 1990, lot 55; Falk 1992, listed no.2.

The style was further developed to its extreme under artists such as Nihalchand in the middle of the 18th century, coinciding with the reign of the poet-prince Raja Sawant Singh. Topsfield neatly describes these aspects of Kishangarh style: "This distinctive ideal of physical beauty developed under the patronage of Maharaja Raj Singh (r.1706-48), who employed several painters from Delhi, and of his son Savant Singh (r.1749-64). Both rulers were followers of the Vallabhacarya sect of Krishna worship, and Savant Singh was himself a well-known devotional poet under the name 'Nagari Das'. The sober Mughal conventions originally practised by their artists evolved into a lyrical and ultimately mannered expression of Vaishnava poetic feeling, in which the divine consorts Krishna and Radha were depicted together in idyillic landscape and palace settings. According to legend, these scenes reflect Savant Singh's inseperability from the singer and poetess Bani Thani, who later accompanied him when he gave up the throne in 1757 to retire to the holy town of Vrindavan." (Topsfield and Beach 1991, p.96)

The dating of the present work is open to debate. The excessively puckered lips of Radha and Krishna might be seen as an indication of 19th century origin. Yet the head and shoulders portrait of Radha and Krishna illustrated in Randhawa and Galbraith (pl.20) employs identically-shaped lips. Furthermore, the narrow sky-scape on the present work, with its gradation from orange to blue, can be seen in very similar fashion on a painting of  A Lady and a Crane datable to circa 1750, in the British Museum (Ahluwalia, no.68, p.110).