Beschreibung:

Ivan da Silva Bruhns Unique and important carpet, designed for the Maharaja of Indore's bedroom, Manik Bagh (Garden of Rubies) Palace, Indore circa 1930 Handwoven wool on wool warp. 646 x 331.5 cm (254 3/8 x 130 1/2 in.) Produced by Manufacture de Savigny, Savigny-sur-Orge, France. Woven with manufacturer’s monogram MS and da Silva Bruhns.
Provenance Maharaja Yashwant Rao Holkar II of Indore, Manik Bagh Palace, Indore, India Sotheby's, Monaco, 'Arts Décoratifs du XXe siècle', 11 October, 1987, lot 331 Private collection Sotheby's, London, 'Applied Arts from 1880', 29 March, 1996, lot 289 Acquired from the above by the present owner Literature 'Indisches Märchenschloß 1933, Eine Berliner Architekt baut den Palast des Maharadschas von Indore', Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, no. 46, November 1933, n.p. for the rug in situ Robert Descharnes, 'En Indie un Palais 1930', Connaissance des Arts, no. 223, September 1970, pp. 52, 55 for the rug in situ Agnolodomenico Pica, 'Eckart Muthesius in India, The avant-garde meets history', Domus, no. 593, April 1979, p. 8 for the rug in situ Peter Adam, Eileen Gray Architect-Designer, London, 1987, p. 188 for the rug in situ Yvonne Brunhammer, Les Styles des Années 30 à 50, Paris, 1987, p. 52, fig. 1 for the rug in situ Patricia Bayer, Art Deco Interiors, London, 1990, p. 136 the rug in situ Philippe Garner, Eileen Gray Designer and Architect, Berlin, 1993, p. 36 for the rug in situ 'Marketplace', Hali, The International Magazine of Antique Carpet and Textile Art, no. 87, July 1996, p. 160 Reto Niggl, Eckart Muthesius 1930: The Maharaja's Palace in Indore, Architecture and Interior, Stuttgart, 1996, pp. 74-75 for the rug in situ 'Art Deco Masterworks, The Carpets of Ivan da Silva Bruhns', Hali, The International Magazine of Antique Carpet and Textile Art, no. 105, July-August 1999, p. 80 Reto Niggl, Eckart Muthesius India, 1930 - 1939, Berlin, 1999, pp. 70-71 for the rug in situ Christopher Farr Matthew Bourne, Fiona Leslie, Contemporary Rugs, Art and Design, London, 2002, p. 26, fig. 18 'The Fabled Manik Bagh, A Muthesius-Designed Palace for the Maharaja of Indore', Architectural Digest, May 2002, p. 106 for rug in situ Le Palais Du Maharajah D'Indore, photographs, exh. cat., Galerie Doria, Paris, 2006, pp. 89, 91 for the rug in situ Peter Adam, Eileen Gray Her Life and Work, Munich, 2008, front cover p. 96 for the rug in situ Eileen Gray sous la direction de Cloé Pitiot, exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2013, p. 69 for the rug in situ Catalogue Essay The Manik Bagh carpet This stunning hand-woven carpet was commissioned and made for the bedroom of the Maharaja Yeshwant Rao Holkar II (1908-1961) of Indore, as an expression of his personal taste, princely status and intellectual connoisseurship. Created for the Maharaja’s new palace, Manik Bagh (Gardens of Rubies), in Indore, India, it is one of several commissioned for the palace from the leading Parisian avant-garde carpet designer Ivan da Silva Bruhns (1881-1980). The fantastic building and its progressive design scheme were the product of two bright young visionaries, the Maharaja and the German architect, Eckart Muthesius (1904-1989) whom he serendipitously met whilst at Oxford University. The resulting Manik Bagh (1930-1934) was a unique example of chic International Modernism in Asia. The Maharaja and his beautiful wife, Maharani Sanyogita Devi (d. 1937) of Indore, travelled to Europe for an English education in 1925. They made an elegant and glamorous couple, enjoying the extravagances of high society and developing a taste for European Art Deco. On returning to Indore to succeed his father in 1930, Shri Yeshwant took with him plans from Muthesius for a new palace suitable for an internationally-educated prince looking to the future of his state and India. Muthesius had grown up immersed in the newly developing ideals and forms of modernism, as propounded by his father, in Glasgow, Berlin, Paris and London. He undertook commissions for eminent patrons in India, promoting the new Modern Style. Together, the royal patron and the enthusiastic architect revelled in creating and collecting pieces which manifested the fusion of traditional craft with the new machine aesthetic. Manik Bagh was constructed like a Mughal palace around a central garden, but there the c