Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

A catalogue of the Ashmolean’s collection of Indian art by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield (published Oxford, 1987).

Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

Publications online: 143 objects

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Lovers by a lotus pool

  • Literature notes

    This simply conceived but delightful study of a noble couple embracing by a stream or pool with lotuses was probably painted around the beginning of the 18th century by a Rajasthani artist working under strong Deccan influences. During the 17th century many of the Rajput princes spent long periods campaigning with the Mughal armies in the Deccan and in some cases acquired a taste for the local styles of painting.

    The picture is also of interest in that it has an unusually early English provenance (though not so early as the Indian album given by Archbishop Laud to the Bodelain Library in 1640). It bears marks showing that it belonged to three well known 18th century collectors of old master drawings, John Richardson senior (1665-1745), his son John Richardson junior and John Barnard (d.1784). The elder Richardson, who was himself an artist is known to have owned a group of Rembrandt’s drawings based on Mughal paintings, as well as an album of Indian drawings.
  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaIndiaDeccan north Deccan (probable place of creation)
    AsiaIndiawest IndiaRajasthan south Rajasthan (possible place of creation)
    Date
    c. 1700
    Associated people
    Jonathan Richardson the Elder (1665 - 1745) (owner)
    Jonathan Richardson the Younger (1694 - 1771) (owner)
    John Barnard (died 1784) (owner)
    Material and technique
    gouache with gold on paper
    Dimensions
    mount 40.1 x 27.7 cm (height x width)
    page 22.6 x 12.7 cm (height x width)
    painting without border 16.4 x 6.9 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Purchased with the assistance of the V&A and the Friends of the Ashmolean Museum, 1983.
    Accession no.
    EA1983.129
  • Further reading

    Harle, J. C., and Andrew Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987), no. 86 on p. 78, pl. 15 (colour) & p. 78

    Paris: Librairie Legueltel, 19 May-23 July 1983, Galerie Jean Soustiel, Miniatures Orientales de l'Inde: Présentation d'un Ensemble de Peintures Musulmanes et Rajpoutes Appartenant à Joseph Soustiel, Marie-Christine David and Jean Soustiel, eds, 3 (Paris: Librairie Legueltel, 1983), no. 84 on p. 84, illus. pp. 83-84 fig. 84

    Skelton, Robert, ‘Indian Art and Artefacts in Early European Collecting’, Oliver Impey and Arthur MacGregor, eds, The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), 279, fig.107

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

    Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

    This simply conceived but delightful study of a noble couple embracing by a stream or pool with lotuses was probably painted around the beginning of the 18th century by a Rajasthani artist working under strong Deccan influences. During the 17th century many of the Rajput princes spent long periods campaigning with the Mughal armies in the Deccan and in some cases acquired a taste for the local styles of painting.

    The picture is also of interest in that it has an unusually early English provenance (though not so early as the Indian album given by Archbishop Laud to the Bodelain Library in 1640). It bears marks showing that it belonged to three well known 18th century collectors of old master drawings, John Richardson senior (1665-1745), his son John Richardson junior and John Barnard (d.1784). The elder Richardson, who was himself an artist is known to have owned a group of Rembrandt’s drawings based on Mughal paintings, as well as an album of Indian drawings.
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