KRISHNA WELCOMING GUESTS IN A PALATIAL SETTING
Kangra, Pahari Hills, Northern India, second half 19th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on wove paper, the vertical composition depicting the blue-skinned Krishna as himself or as a nayak (princely hero) standing on the front porch of a palatial compound welcoming two princes, each of them wearing an encrusted crown, one with a long tulwar sword, the other with a black dhal shield, behind Krishna a male attendant with a white fly-whisk, in the foreground a typical setting of Anglo-Indian furniture featuring a blue armchair and a high occasional table with white marble top, the composition set within an oval frame with cusped floral cartouches painted in polychromes on white on each corner, and typical Pahari Kangra outer borders of white and gold floral sprays on a dark blue ground and red wavy lines on a pink ground, mounted on a later white cardboard frame, 43.2cm x 34cm including the frame.