A LARGE VIEW OF MEDINA, INDIA, LATE 19TH CENTURY

Opaque pigments on heavy paper, between polychrome rules and minor borders. Depicting Al-Masjid Al-Nabawi in Medina surrounded by houses. 41 by 58.5 cm.

CATALOGUE NOTE In style these paintings relate to others of Mecca and Medina done by Indian artists. The depiction of the buildings in these paintings, recall that found on Pahari paintings, see for instance a painting entitled ‘Krishna Espies Radha and the Gopis’ done in the Guler style in circa 1790-1800 (John Seyller and Jagdish Mittal, Pahari Paintings in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad, 2014, fig.20, p.247). When he visited Mecca in 1853, Richard Burton wrote that a number of Indian artists there supported themselves by 'drawing pictures of the holy shrines in pen and ink' (Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, London, 1893, p.341 quoted in Stephen Vernoit, Occidentalism, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, 1997, p.33). These miniatures are probably of the type of work done by these artists.