Includes 'Radha and Krishna in the Grove' illustrated here dated circa 1780, opaque watercolour on paper, 13 x 17.5cm. This work is no.16 in one of the albums executed around 1870 by an artist from Kangra in in the Pahari Hills of Punjab, India, during the reign of Raja Sansar Chand (1775-1823). It is among the finest Indian miniatures and features Radha and Krishna, the eighth and most popular incarnation of the Hindu god, Vishnu, embracing in an idyllic landscape. The graceful, intertwining poses of the couple in this elegant watercolour meet with an ecstatic response from the natural world, where egrets graze, lotuses flower and the trees suddenly spring into bloom around them. One of two bequests to four museums by P C Manuk and G M Coles through the Art Fund between 1948 and 1949.

Provenance

The PC Manuk and Miss GM Coles bequest was split into reference numbers: 2847, 2848 & 2849.