A HARBOUR SCENE WITH A BURNING MERCHANT SHIP
INDIA, RAJASTHAN, KUTCH, CIRCA 1850
Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000
Auction: 11 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
gouache on paper, with a dark blue border, depicting a city harbour scene where a drama has unfolded in the form of a merchant ship taking fire on the right hand side, whilst people are depicted steadily emptying the ship, two charred bodies are seen rising up through the flames, other boats nearby are assisting, to the left the rest of the city goes on living with the gentry out on horseback or in a horse drawn carriage, riders on horseback, the backdrop of the city with a row of red and yellow awning flanking the city entrance, rows of figures on some of the buildings no doubt looking at the drama unfold
Dimensions
23.4cm x 38cm
Provenance
Formerly Private Collection, London
Footnote
This lot and the following lot have a distinctive charm about them. Within the first painting, whilst the artist has successfully recounted a dramatic event with all the movement, gathering of people and the engulfing flames, they have failed to master perspective. The sea on the right hand side appears to be higher than the whole city and the two horse riders in the foreground are minuscule, compared to the rather large and obscure figure on the right in the foreground carrying a stick. Similarly in the second painting, the artist has managed the overall architectural perspective but then does not quite master the size of the figures. Both these paintings are charming interpretations or pastiche of Western prints. For further discussion on these types of paintings produced by local Indian artists, see B.N. Goswamy and Anna Dallapiccola, A Place Apart: Painting in Kutch, Oxford University Press, 1983.