Rajah Sansar Chand of Kangra (reg. 1775-1823) seated smoking a hookah on a terrace in conversation with a young companion
Kangra, early 19th Century
gouache and gold on paper, blue border
238 x 167 mm.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Christie's, 10th July 1975, lot 167.
Formerly in a private collection, Oxford.

The artist has composed a striking juxtaposition of colours, with the rajah dressed in a white jama over a pale green salwar, with the young companion opposite in vibrant orangey-red. A yellow ground with the curve of the sky above completes the simple composition. A similar startling colour scheme, of orange against yellow, is seen in a Kangra portrait of Raja Ajit Singh of Chamba, dated to circa 1795-1800 in the James Ivory collection (see J. P. Losty, Indian Miniatures from the James Ivory Collection, Francesca Galloway, London 2010, no. 60).

Sansar Chand normally favoured a turban with a central cone but there are portraits of him wearing other forms of headdress or turban and in many of his group portraits, courtiers wear the particular shape of turban seen here (see W. G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, London 1973, Kangra figs. 13, 14, 17, 23). For two portraits of Sansar Chand similar to our paintings, see K. Khandalavala, Pahari Miniature Painting, Bombay 1958, nos. 296 & 297 (in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Jehangiri Collection in Bombay). These are dated to circa 1815.

For other depictions of Sansar Chand, and discussion of painting during his reign, with particular reference to the artist Purkhu, see M. C. Beach, E. Fischer, B. N. Goswamy, Masters of Indian Painting 1650-1900, Zurich 2011, pp. 719-732, esp. pp. 723-724; and B. N. Goswamy, E. Fischer, Pahari Masters, Delhi 1997, pp. 367-376.