KISHANGARH, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, CIRCA 1770

The legendary beauty of Bani Thani, the concubine of Raja Sawant Singh of Kishangarh (r.1748-57), was most famously captured by Nihal Chand in an iconic painting which today is kept in the National Museum, New Delhi. Chand’s depiction combined the aesthetics of side-profile Mughal portraiture with the exaggerated features of Indian statuary. Navina Haidar suggests that the enlarged eyes of his portrait may have taken inspiration from the symbolic importance of eyes in Indian poetry and ritual (N. Haidar in M. C. Beach et al., Masters of Indian Painting II: 1650-1911, New York, 2011, p. 602). The distinctive features of Nihal Chand’s rendering of Bani Thani can be seen on Kishangarh paintings from the later eighteenth century, often transfigured into the Hindu deity Radha. A full-body portrait of her sold at Bonhams, New York, 18 March 2013, lot 94. A charcoal and ink drawing of her with Sawant Singh was also sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 15 March 2017, lot 293.