The Adyar River; in the distance St. Thomas's Mount and garden houses beside the river; in the foreground a terrace and country boat - 1836
Water-colour drawing of the Adyar River with St. Thomas's Mount in the distance by Justinian Gantz (1802-1862) in 1836. Inscribed on the original mount in...
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Vibhishana was the more righteous brother of Ravana, demon king of Lanka, who abducted Rama’s wife Sita. When Rama and his monkey and bear allies besieged Lanka, Vibhishana failed to dissuade Ravana from fighting and went over to Rama’s side. He k...
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Angada delivers Rama's message to Ravana
Guler, c. 1725
Few of the large scale paintings of the ‘Siege of Lanka’ series were ever completed. Its subject is Rama’s siege of Lanka, where his wife Sita had been imprisoned by the demon king Ravana in his golden fortress. In this partly finished w...
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Fragment of scroll-painting / 'pata' in eight registers, depicting scenes from the 'Ramayana': Rama in his forest exile fighting a demon; Rishyashringa and the 'rishis' reading the five omens; the marriage of Rama, Lakshmana and their two brothers; etc. Unusually, the episodes are not shown in th...
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Watercolour painting on paper of Hanumān. Hanumān stands on the banks of a body of water. He wears green shorts and has a pink shawl draped over his shoulder and chest. He wears a crown and jewel encrusted armlets. On his chest rests a floral garland and necklaces. He holds...
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Watercolour painting on paper of Mandodari wife of Ravaṇa, seated on a cushioned plinth and looking to her left. She holds a flower in her right hand. She wears jewellery, garlands and lavish textiles. Two columns are shown behind Mandodari and in the far distance as line of trees. The painting i...
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Watercolour painting on paper of Ahalya, the wife of the seer Gautama, seated on a plinth with a back, on a terrace with a building behind her. A covered doorway is also shown. She wears lavish textiles and jewellery and holds a flower in her right hand. In front of the plinth is a vase with flow...
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A howdah decorated with the fish of Oudh, lion and antelope - ca.1840
Lucknow, India
This furniture, like much of the furniture designed for the nawabs and kings of Oudh, was strongly influenced by the designs of Robert Home (1752-1834), who worked as a retained court-artist to Ghazi ud-Din ...
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