Rare Paintings
 12 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
The east side of the Royal Palaces in the Fort at Delhi is shown on the far side of the river, with a boat full of people in the middle of the river and three figures on the near bank - 1836

This Company Painting (a painting made by an Indian artist for the British) depicts the east side of th... Read More
 12 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
A view of the Jami Masjid in Delhi, seen from the side of an adjoining house. Rooftop in foreground. Street and steps leading up to the mosque in the centre. Houses to left and right - 1840

Artist : Mazhar Ali Khan

This Company painting shows a view of the Jami Masjid in Delhi. This is India's ... Read More
 10 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
The British Army encamped below the rock of Sholingarh - 28 September 1781

Water-colour painting of the British Army encamped below the rock of Sholinghur (Tamil Nadu) by Samuel Davis (1756/7-1819), 28 September 1781. Inscribed on the front in ink is: 'The Rock and Pagoda of Sholanghur with pa... Read More
 10 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
Tipu's legend lives on
By Mini Pant Zachariah
Thu Hindu - November 4, 2010

More than two centuries after his death, Tipu Sultan's possessions continue to lure art lovers and historians. Rare paintings depicting the battle of Pollilur, and a finial of his throne, recently rediscovered, were in th... Read More
 6 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
Great Imambara, Lucknow - 1870

View of the Central Hall from the courtyard photographed by John Edward Saché (1870s). Nawab Asaf ud-Daula of Awadh (r.1775-97), requested architect Kifayat-ullah to construct the Great Imambara in 1784 , for the purpose of celebrating the Muslim festival of Muharr... Read More
 6 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
The Muharram Festival. Asaf al-Daula, Nawab of Oudh, listening at night to the maulvi reading from the scriptures - 1795

Watercolour of the Muharram Festival, part of the Hyde collection, by an unknown artist working in the Murshidabad style, c. 1795. Inscribed on the back in pencil: 'The Nubob ... Read More
 5 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
Gouache painting on paper. Śiva is leaning against a bolster on a terrace and is accompanied by Pārvatī. Her tiger mount and Nandi, Śiva's mount, are positioned on either side. Gaṇeśa holds a fly-whisk in his trunk - 1800.

Collected by Major Edward Moor FRS.

Source : British Museum Read More
 5 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
Gouache painting on paper. The month of March (Caitra) from a Baramasa series. Krishna and Radha are seated on a terrace surrounded by a lush garden. A Sanskrit verse written in Devanagari along the upper border of the painting describes the scene - 1800.

Collected by Major Edward Moor FRS.

Sou... Read More
 4 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
A carriage with three outriders approaching Barrackpore House - 1810

Wash drawing of a carriage with three outriders approaching Barrackpore House at Barakpur near Calcutta in West Bengal, by William Daniell (1769-1837), c. 1810. Inscribed on the front in ink: 'W.' 'Daniell.'

Thomas Daniell (17... Read More
 4 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
A Mahomedan of distinction with a Dervish on his Pilgrimage - 1813

Plate nineteen from the first volume of James Forbes' "Oriental Memoirs", a work based on copious notes and drawings made during his travels in India between the 1760s-70s. Forbes(1749-1819)spent most of his working life in Weste... Read More
 2 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
The Town and Palace, Boondee - 1860

Photograph from an album of 80 albumen prints taken by Eugene Clutterbuck Impey. Bundi, near Mewar in Rajasthan, is shielded by the jagged hills of the Vindhya range. It was the capital of the Hara Chauhan clan of Rajputs (who took the title of 'Rao'), and who... Read More
 1 Dec 2011 Rare Paintings
Landscape near Marinalli (Mysore); a tank and mountains in the distance, a load-rest in the foreground - 3 March 1799

Water-colour painting of a landscape near Marinalli with a tank and mountains in the distance and a load-rest in the foreground by Elisha Trapaud (1750-1828), dated 3 March 179... Read More
 28 Nov 2011 Rare Paintings
New Book :
Photos Of The Gods: The Printed Image And Political Struggle In India
By Chris Pinney
Publisher: Reaktion Books - 2004

Book Summary :
Mass-produced images have long been produced and used in India by religious and nationalist movements - the emergence of Indian-run chromolithograph pr... Read More
 25 Nov 2011 Rare Paintings
The Bath Chambers in the Palace at Agra - 1815

Watercolour of the bath chambers at Agra palace from 'Views by Seeta Ram from Agra to Barrackpore Vol. X' produced for Lord Moira, afterwards the Marquess of Hastings, by Sita Ram between 1814-15. Marquess of Hastings, the Governor-General of Bengal... Read More
 25 Nov 2011 Rare Paintings
Art Review :
Indian Modernism via an Eclectic and Elusive Artist
By Holland Cotter
New York Times, August 19, 2008

..."In India the emergency was a bruising colonialism that had become as intolerable to artists as to everyone else. From the official British perspective, India had no living art.... Read More
 22 Nov 2011 Rare Paintings
Tanna Bunder, Shahpoor in the distance - 1851

Watercolour by William Carpenter (1818-1899) of Thane in Maharashtra, dated 6th January 1851. The image is inscribed on the reverse: 'Tanna Bunder. Shahpoor in the distance. Jany. 6th 1851'. Thana near Bombay was the capital of a kingdom in the thi... Read More
 21 Nov 2011 Rare Paintings
Cheetas sent by the King of Oude to accompany the Governor General - 1844

This lithograph is taken from plate 15 of Emily Eden's 'Portraits of the Princes and People of India.' Eden wrote: "These are Hunting Leopards of the King of Oude's [Nawab of Avadh] Establishment, which were sent to acco... Read More
 18 Nov 2011 Rare Paintings
The Jakkat Mahal and Bridge City of Poona - 1871

Water-colour painting of a view in Pune (Poona) by John Frederick Lester (1825-1915) dated 9th October 1871. This image is from an album of water-colours made between 1865 and 1877 in Kathiawar, Bombay, Poona, Mahabaleshwar and Savantvadi State.... Read More
 18 Nov 2011 Rare Paintings
A sketch in the suburbs of the city of Poona - 1871

Water-colour painting of a part of the city of Pune (Poona) by John Frederick Lester (1825-1915) dated September 1871. This is from an album of 30 folios with laid down water-colours made... between 1865 and 1877 in Kathiawar, Bombay, Poona, Ma... Read More
 16 Nov 2011 Rare Paintings
Repainting Shivaji

To mark Ramzan, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Muslim Brigade will promote his image as close to all communities, distribute copies of a painting of him with Muslim sardars
By Siddharth Gadkari - Pune Mirror - 2 August 2011

As Muslims in the city get ready for the holy month of Ramz... Read More
 16 Nov 2011 Rare Paintings
The Chishty order, the oldest Sufi brotherhood in India, founded in the early thirteenth century. In the allegorical painting on the left, from about 1615, the emperor Jahangir visits with the head of the Chisty order, Shaikh Husain Ajmeri, while the Ottoman sultan, King James I of England, and t... Read More