An illustration to a Baramasa series: Radha and Krishna meeting in secret at night, in a rooftop garden pavilion
Guler or Garhwal, circa 1790-1800
gouache and gold on paper, red border, nagari inscription verso
283 x 186 mm.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Sotheby's, Fine Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 20th November 1986, lot 149 (illustrated), as Garhwal.
Sotheby's, Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 26th April 1991, lot 153.
Private UK collection, 1991-present.

For a very similar Guler portrayal, see the sale in these rooms, Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 4th October 2011, lot 402.

This Baramasa subject illustrates the sensitive emotions of lovers depicted in this cycle of poems describing the months of the year. It is also a fine example of painting from Guler which played such a key part in the development of Pahari painting. Seu, father of the famed and highly accomplished artists Manaku and Nainsukh, was a native of Guler and established a dynasty of artists who brought about a change in the 18th Century style of painting that was to last into the 19th.