Beschreibung:

A RIVERSIDE PROCESSION Murshidabad, West Bengal, Eastern India, late 18th century Opaque pigments on paper, the horizontal composition finely depicting a riverside procession left to right with a mahout on an elephant, preceded by a nobleman on an ox-driven chariot and a holy man on a dappled horse, from the opposite side a heavy loaded donkey with attendants and a lady on a camel, behind them the facade of a white pleasure palace, lush vegetation and the top of a few buildings showing behind the facade, the middle ground characterised by several rowing boats with colourful flags and canopies, some with very elaborate zoomorphic figureheads indicating their owners' importance, possibly a rowing race among different noble families, further boats in the distance resembling ferries and commercial boats, in the background an extensive city view with very picturesque buildings skyline, within black rules and blue border, mounted on a white cardboard, 26cm x 34.5cm excluding the mounting. Provenance: from a Scottish private collection. Murshidabad artists were renowned for their interest in extensive layered views of everyday life in a city, possibly an idealised version of Murshidabad in this painting. If that was the case, the river in the middle would be the Bhagirati and the bank on the foreground Mahinagar (now Azamganj) with its Nawabi pleasure palaces. In the 1750s, under the patronage of Nawab Alivardi Khan (r. 1740-65) Murshidabad artists developed a local style of painting echoing the late Mughal style and subject matter of 1740s Delhi but adding their own characteristic flavour. The human bodies appear squat, with a slight back tension to their head, the animals are rendered in a very naturalistic manner, the chromatic palette tends to be more sombre and favour the scale of greys, and stratified city / villages scenes appear to be a prominent subject; all features showcased in our painting. For other such scenes contemporary to ours, see Bonhams London, 7 October 2014, lots 348 and 349.