1957.98: Raja Balwant Singh's Hunt

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1957.98

People

Attributed to Nainsukh, Indian

Title

Raja Balwant Singh's Hunt

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting

Date

February/March 1752

Places

Creation Place: South Asia, India, Kashmir, Jasrota

Culture

Indian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/216946

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Dimensions

Sheet: 29.3 x 39.9 cm (11 9/16 x 15 11/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Friends of the Fogg Art Museum Fund

Accession Year

1957

Object Number

1957.98

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This scene takes place on the scenic banks of the river Tawi in the state of Jammu in northern India. Wearing a dark green jama, Raja Balwant Singh, king of Jasrota, leans forward with a sword in one hand to defend his elephant from an attacking lion. The scene is packed with intense action, all the retainers on foot and on horseback rushing forward to help. The mahaout elephant trainer is poised to push the elephant goad into the head of the lion. The sparse setting gives little clue to the foreground violence: the landscape is bare, dotted with just a few palash trees. The chaotic scene is witnessed by a distant hawk, who circles through the sky above.

Nainsukh was one of the most famous artists working in the Punjab Hills. Balwant Singh comissioned numerous portraits from Nainsukh, ranging from scenes of state audiences and royal hunts to intimate moments in the life of the ruler.
(label text from Sport of Kings exhibition January 2005).

Publication History

• Stuart Cary Welch and Milo Cleveland Beach, Gods, Thrones, and Peacocks Northern Indian Painting from Two Traditions, exh. cat., Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1965), p. 80, fig. 36
• William G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills: A Survey and History of Pahari Miniature Painting, Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc. (London, 1973), vol. I, p. 203 - 204, no. 44; vol. II, p. 146, fig. 44
• B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India, Artibus Asiae Publishers (Zürich, 1992), pp. 292-293, no. 122
• B.N. Goswamy, Nainsukh of Guler: A great Indian painter from a small hill-state, Artibus Asiae Publishers (Zürich, 1997), p. 150 - 151, no. 51
• Daniel Ehnbom, "Painting", Art of India: Prehistory to the Present, ed. Frederick Asher, Encyclopaedia Britannica (London, 2003), 221 - 244, p. 241, ill.
• "Exhibitions in Brief", HALI (London, 2005), no. 139, p.113, p. 113
• Milo Cleveland Beach, Eberhard Fischer, and B.N. Goswamy, ed., Masters of Indian Painting, exh. cat., Artibus Asiae Publishers (Zürich, 2011), p. 662, no. 14; p. 670, fig. 8

Exhibition History

• Out of the Hills: Miniature Painting from Himalayan India, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/26/1984 - 07/08/1984
• The Sport of Kings: Art of the Hunt in Iran and India, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/22/2005 - 06/26/2005
• 32Q: 2590 South and Southeast Asia, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/06/2019 - 07/31/2021

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