A giant ram in a mountainous landscape, fires in the distance, a gaddi tending his herd in the foreground Kangra, circa 1815


gouache on paper, floral and pink borders, cover paper with nagari script and the inscription of the Royal Library, Mandi, in mount image 187 x 138 mm.; leaf 265 x 221 mm.
|ProvenanceFormerly in the Royal collection, Mandi.Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, London, 10th April 2008, lot 129.Close comparison can be made between the snow-covered mountain peaks dotted with coloured jewels, the white serrated edge of the river bank, and the treatment of the river, with the same features found in two paintings ascribed to Purkhu of Kangra, dated circa 1800-1815, both in the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh (see B. N. Goswamy, E. Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India, Delhi 1997, pp. 378-381, nos. 164 and 165).