Lot 223: TODI RAGINI

TODI RAGINI
PROBABLY GULER, CIRCA 1840-50
Gouache on paper, a woman in a bright yellow dress plays the vina, followed by a grey buck, a landscape with a blossoming and a banana tree with a bunch of bananas behind, within a grey frame decorated with gold arabesque, laid down on speckled pink card, in good condition
Miniature 7 1/8 x 4¾in. (18 x 12.1cm)

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A similar composition and style is found in another Todi Ragini in the Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh. The black buck in particular in that example displays strong similarity to the present. The Chandigarh example is attributed to Guler circa 1825-30 (B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer, Court Painters of Northern India, Pahari Masters, Zurich, 1992, no. 157, pp. 360-61). The banana leaves, flower and pink floral blossoms of the present miniature are also found on a miniature attributed to Guler circa 1840-50, formerly in the Archer collection (W.G.Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, Vol. II, London, 1973, no. 75, p. 120). Although published in black and white, Archer mentions the white, blue and scarlet colour combinations and the over-formalised standard face, both of which are features found here. A miniature in the Lahore Museum, attributed to Guler circa 1780, is notable in that it depicts a lady wearing a similar typically 'male' turban with a plumed aigrette (F.S. Aijazuddin, Pahari Paintings & Sikh Portraits in the Lahore Museum, London, 1977, no. 38, pp. 28-9).