MARWAR, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, CIRCA 1810

It is easy to see why the present lot, with its puzzling blend of Rajasthani court styles and unfinished sections, drew the eye of Toby Falk. He may have been attracted to it by the fact that though its subject is the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Man Singh, identifiable by his classic Marwari headdress and by his distinctive beard, the attenuated bodies of the figures as well as the rather solid appearance of their gowns is more suggestive of the Kishangarh school. Or he may have been interested in the fact that the work is unfinished, and how it casts light on the ways of working which were current at this particular atelier.

It is striking that the attendant figures have been completed, while the Maharaja himself has not. Perhaps the artist wanted to practise before tackling the principal subject, alternatively it may reflect that a senior artist would have been responsible for painting the main figure, but that work was never completed. In her essay on manuscript production at the Jodhpur court, Debra Diamond suggests that a division of labour like this was used to produce the monumental paintings during the reign of Man Singh (Debra Diamond et. al, 'Monumental Manuscripts at the Jodhpur Court', in Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur, exhibition catalogue, London, 2009, pp.42-51.). Nonetheless, all his features have been carefully and fully sketched out, suggesting the care that was taken to plan the composition entirely before applying any paint to the paper. The Mehrangarh Palace Museum has in its collection a painting, dated to 1804, of the coronation of Man Singh which for all its beauty remains, like the present lot, unfinished.