Lot 130
A PORTRAIT OF A HUNCHBACK
INDIA, KARNATAKA, POSSIBLY SHORAPUR, CIRCA 1840
Auction: 10 June 2026 from 14:00 BST
Description
pen and ink and opaque watercolour on paper, two line inscription in Telgu, on the backboard are several hand written notes by Stuart Cary Welch, including ‘A Hunchback, Twice Blessed by the Goddess [he also shows pock-marks poor fellow], perhaps South Indian, 1st half 19th c., Shorapur? Dr Z Telegu, Shorapur, North Camataka, Meadows Taylor lived there, J. Mittal - 1995 Jan, Somewhere between the Buddha and a roast chicken’
Dimensions
9.8cm x 11.5cm
Provenance
Formerly, the Stuart Cary Welch Collection (1928-2008), Sotheby's The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part Two, Art of India, 31st May 2011, Lot 126
Footnote
Linked to this drawing is a note by Cary Welch on the back of the frame, suggesting a possible association with Colonel Meadows Taylor (1808–1876). Taylor—novelist, administrator, and a scholar of Central and Southern India’s history and languages—was appointed by the Nizam of Hyderabad to govern the principality of Shorapur, and was later given a post by the East India Company as Deputy Commissioner of the Deccan’s ceded districts.
Other notes also show a very personal side to Welch, perhaps one of frustration, not quite being able to place something.