.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Like lot 75, this is also an illustration of the khandita nayika, the enraged heroine whose lover has stayed out all night whilst she has stayed home anxiously. In this amusing interpretation the nayaka, here shown by Krishna, has been struck by Radha with a lotus stem as punishment for his misbehaviour. Radha holds his right hand so he cannot escape and appears to be winding up for another strike. Meanwhile a slightly rueful Krishna is shown in three quarter stance turning away slightly recoiling and rubbing his left cheek.
Standing beneath a delicate weeping willow, the nayika’s elegant dupatta is in stark contrast to the heavy patka worn by Krishna which relates closely to a patka in a painting attributed to Harkhu at Chamba (Mittal, 1998, fig.6). The poses of the scene are a playful inversion of the episode of the Danalila of Radha and Krishna in which the latter, acting a stern customs official, demands a toll from the gopis. A version of this scene from Chamba, also in elongated oval format, was sold Sotheby’s London, 25 October 2017, lot 87, and another from Guler was sold Christie’s New York, 22 September 2021, lot 459.
Standing beneath a delicate weeping willow, the nayika’s elegant dupatta is in stark contrast to the heavy patka worn by Krishna which relates closely to a patka in a painting attributed to Harkhu at Chamba (Mittal, 1998, fig.6). The poses of the scene are a playful inversion of the episode of the Danalila of Radha and Krishna in which the latter, acting a stern customs official, demands a toll from the gopis. A version of this scene from Chamba, also in elongated oval format, was sold Sotheby’s London, 25 October 2017, lot 87, and another from Guler was sold Christie’s New York, 22 September 2021, lot 459.