Ascetics Making Bhang | Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2009.202.79
People: Attributed to Basawan, Indian (16th century)
Title: Ascetics Making Bhang
Other Titles: Alternate Title: Bhang Making
Classification: Drawings
Work Type: drawing
Date: c. 1585
Places: Creation Place: South Asia, India
Period: Mughal period
Culture: Mughal
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/217552

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Black and brown ink on off-white paper
Dimensions: 16.7 x 8.8 cm (6 9/16 x 3 7/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: Stuart Cary Welch (by 1983 - 2008,) by descent; to his estate (2008-2009,) gift; to Harvard Art Museum.

Notes:
Object was part of long-term loan to Museum in 1983.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch
Accession Year: 2009
Object Number: 2009.202.79
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description: This small drawing depicts four youths in a wooded setting. Three are handling pots and a basket while a fourth peers down from behind a tree. The figures are nude, covered if at all, only by wavy hair. A dog, with crossed forelegs observes from the right; a walking stick with curving handle lies in the middle ground. These elements--the nudity, the walking stick, and the dog--are attributes of India's religious ascetics and common to their artistic portrayal.

Publication History

Howard Hodgkin and Terence McInerney, Indian Drawing : An Exhibition Chosen by Howard Hodgkin, exh. cat., Arts Council of Great Britain, London (London, England, 1983), Figure 50
Stuart Cary Welch and Kim Masteller, From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, 2004), p. X (detail); p. 85, no. 19

Exhibition History

Anvari's Divan: A Pocket Book for Akbar, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 02/07/1984 - 03/28/1984
Indian and Persian Drawings, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/25/1987 - 06/21/1987
Linear Graces ... and Disgraces: Part I, Drawings from the Courts of Persia, Turkey, and India, 15th-19th Centuries, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/15/1994 - 12/11/1994
From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from SCWelch, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 03/19/2005 - 06/02/2005
32Q: 2590 South and Southeast Asia, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/26/2017 - 11/08/2017
A Colloquium in the Visual Arts , Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 01/02/2022

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu