2009.202.26: Elephants Approaching a Palace (recto, fragment); Pricked drawing of Matsya, Visnhu’s Fish Avatar (verso, fragment)

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2009.202.26

People

Attributed to Master of Elephants, Indian

Title

Elephants Approaching a Palace (recto, fragment); Pricked drawing of Matsya, Visnhu’s Fish Avatar (verso, fragment)

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

c. 1625

Places

Creation Place: South Asia, India, Rajasthan, Kota

Culture

Indian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/217610

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Black ink and watercolor on beige laid paper; Rajput Style, Kota School

Dimensions

24.2 x 29 cm (9 1/2 x 11 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

2009.202.26

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

On the recto side of this page is a large caparisoned elephant approaching a palace with its trunk raised up, saluting a figure on the palace’s balcony. Due to the missing portion of this image, it is difficult to determine the identity of the royal figure, although it has been suggested it is Prince Madho Singh. Mounted on the elephant is a driver carrying an elephant goad. The large elephant leads a group of smaller elephants who are also accompanied by drivers. On the right of the large elephant is a calf. An attendant on foot sprays water at the large elephant from a hose. On the verso side of this page, in the upper right hand corner is a fragmented drawing of Matsya, the Hindu god Vishnu’s first and fish avatar. The drawing has been pricked to prepare for pounce transfer, which involves forcing powder such as chalk and charcoal through the holes onto a clean surface to copy the image. Rajput Style, Kota School.

Publication History

• Milo Cleveland Beach, Rajput Painting at Bundi and Kotah, Artibus Asiae Publishers (Ascona, Switzerland, 1974), p. 33; pl. LXXVI, fig. 81
• Howard Hodgkin and Terence McInerney, Indian Drawing : An Exhibition Chosen by Howard Hodgkin, exh. cat., Arts Council of Great Britain, London (London, England, 1983), no. 25
• Stuart Cary Welch, Gods, Kings, and Tigers: The Art of Kotah, exh. cat., ed. Stuart Cary Welch, Prestel (New York, NY, 1997), p. 21, fig. 7
• 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), pp. 128-129, no. 37
• Milo Cleveland Beach, Eberhard Fischer, and B.N. Goswamy, ed., Masters of Indian Painting, exh. cat., Artibus Asiae Publishers (Zürich, 2011), p. 292, no. 7; p. 297, fig. 7

Exhibition History

• 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
• Linear Graces ... and Disgraces: Part II, Drawings from the Courts of Persia, Turkey, and India, 15th-19th Centuries, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/26/1994 - 03/05/1995
• 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

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