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137
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Ⓛ Sohni swimming across the river to Mahiwal
North India, ea…
See original version (French)
137
-
Ⓛ Sohni swimming across the river to Mahiwal
North India, ea…
See original version (French)
Estimate €3,000 - €5,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Ⓛ Sohni swimming across the river to Mahiwal
North India, early 19th century
Opaque pigments on paper. The composition depicts Mahiwal herding his buffaloes on the opposite bank, Sohni crossing the river on his overturned jar, and the ascetic - Mahiwal's retreat companion - seated in front of his cave smoking hookah in the foreground.
Size: 31.3 × 22.5 cm
Provenance:
Former collection of Leo Spik (1919-1968), Berlin.
Related work :
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), inv. M.72.2.1, Awadh, circa 1780.
Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World & India, 30 March 2022, lot 56.
This miniature illustrates the legend of Sohni, the daughter of a Gujarati potter, and Mahiwal - a Turkestani merchant who became a buffalo herder in order to stay close to her - who, separated by social conventions, met every night in secret. Sohni would swim across the river, supported by an earthenware jar, to the shore where her lover was waiting. On the fateful night, her jealous sister-in-law replaced the baked jar with a raw one, which disintegrated in the water. Sohni drowned in it and Mahiwal, rushing to her rescue, also perished.
The theme met with lasting success in the workshops of Delhi and the Mughal provinces in the 18th century. Two folios devoted to this episode are preserved in the British Library's Johnson Album, attributed to Awadh and dated around 1770-1780 (T. Falk and M. Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library, London, 1981, no. 335 i-ii, p. 158); a more elaborate version from Farrukhabad, circa 1770-1775, is reproduced by E. Binney (Indian Miniature Painting from the India Office Library, London, 1981, no. 335 i-ii, p. 158). Binney (Indian Miniature Painting from the Collection of Edwin Binney 3rd, 1973, no. 105, p. 128); another example, in the style of Faqirullah Khan, attributed to Lucknow or Farrukhabad around 1780, is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (inv. no. M.72.2.1). The present folio is a 19th-century extension of the iconographic tradition established a century earlier in the workshops of Awadh and the Mughal provincial courts.
Sohni swimming across the river to meet Mahiwal, gouache on paper, North India, early 19th century, after a Lucknow or Farrukhabad composition of circa 1780.
Location:
The work is currently stored in London; please contact the department for further information.
Notes:
British VAT of 20% will apply to this lot currently located in London. In case of export from UK, VAT on sale fees can be refunded upon presentation of customs documentation.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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