MONKEY AND BABY


NORTH INDIA, LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURYBlack ink and transparent pigments on paper; inscribed in nasta'liq  script reads Jim Baha'i" (Brother Baha'i ?) and "'Uthman Ji Puri 5771 (or 1775)". 20 1/2 x 30 in. (52 x 76 cm)
|The skillfully painted monkey runs energetically to the right with her baby clinging to her underside. The work is reminiscent, in scale and composition, of a monumental portrait of the Monkey Husayni, painted in Udaipur, circa 1700, formerly in The Stuart Cary Welch Collection (see Sotheby's, London, 31 May 2011, lot 39). The two animals portrayed also each wear a collar suggesting a gift made to an important figure. In his discussion of the Udaipur painting, Stuart Cary Welch links the portrait to earlier Mughal animal studies developed by artists such as Mansur as well as to the fashion for maintaining exotic menageries.  Provenance Christie's, London, 10 June 2013, lot 206