THE SWEET SELLERS, ATTRIBUTED TO BISHAN SINGH, NORTH INDIA, AMRITSAR OR LAHORE, CIRCA 1860-1870

Project Details

THE SWEET SELLERS, ATTRIBUTED TO BISHAN SINGH, NORTH INDIA, AMRITSAR OR LAHORE, CIRCA 1860-1870

Gouache on paper with use of gold, blue margin rules.

A passerby stopping at a sweet seller’s stall, the sweet seller offering his confections weighed on scales to the passerby, an attendant crouching in the foreground stirring a cauldron of gulab jamuns simmering in syrup over a log fire, the sweet seller’s shop in the background with a bell hanging in the doorway from under a canopy.

Stalls and stall holders are part of Indian life on the pavements of cities and towns and along roads in more rural areas of the Indian sub-continent, each stall offering the daily necessities of everyday life.

Bishan Singh ( c. 1836- 1900), also sometimes known as Baba Bishan Singh, was an important Sikh artist in the north of India in the second half of the nineteenth century. He was highly observant and often painted and documented scenes of stallholders, his pale palettes adding brighter colours, perhaps in the turbans of his figures as shown in this present lot. Amritsar and Lahore also became important centres, following harsh restrictions imposed on weavers in Kashmir by Maharaja Gulab Singh (r. 1846-1856), for shawl production, employing tens of thousands of people and agents retained by overseas importers. This thriving industry gave further inspiration to local artists depicting weavers in their paintings. A large painting entitled ‘Shawl Weaver Workshop’ by Bishan Singh is in the National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet, Paris (inv.no MA 12702). Another depicting darners, c. 1870 is in the Louvre Abu Dhabi (LAD 2011.117).

Bishan Singh and his brother Kishan Singh came from a family of artists producing not only miniature paintings but also murals in important Sikh shrines in Amritsar; the Golden Temple and the Abal Takht both being major commissions. They also worked in the nearby princely states of Kapurthala, Patiala and Nabha. At the Exhibition of Arts and Crafts in Lahore in 1864, Bishan Singh exhibited ten paintings depicting durbar scenes of Maharaja Ranjit Singh ( r. 1801-1839), his successor Maharaja Sher Singh (r. 1841, -1843) and the Municipal Committee of Amritser. For this, Bishan Singh was awarded a major prize at the exhibition with the judges noting “the figure drawing is admirable. The colour is tasteful and rich and likenesses are good, and the expression is varied and truthful”. B.H. Baden-Powel’s Handbook of the Manufacturers and Arts of the Punjab, a survey published in 1872 based on the 1864 exhibition, notes that that Bishan Singh’s work was ‘the most clever and truthful’.

For further discussion see:

W.G. Archer, Paintings of the Sikhs, London, HMSO, 1966, pp.59-61, 92.

Singh, N. Poovaya-Smith and K. Ponnapa, Warm and Rich and Fearless, A brief Survey of Sikh Culture, Bradford, 1991.

S.R. Camby, Princes, Poets and Paladins, London, 1998, nos. 143-145.

Stronge (ed.) , The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms, London, 1999.

Sale in these rooms, Oriental Manuscripts, 10 October, 1988, lots 11-14.

Provenance

Private French Collection from Boulonnais formed in the 1920s and 1930s. Thence by descent.

Categories: Calligraphy & Miniatures

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

THE SWEET SELLERS, ATTRIBUTED TO BISHAN SINGH, NORTH INDIA, AMRITSAR OR LAHORE, CIRCA 1860-1870

Enquiries