A raja hunting wild boars, design for a scabbard
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1750-1760
name: label: Artist
content: Attributed to Shevdar Gangeyagi (active 1740-1770)
notes: label: School/Tradition
content: Kota school
label: Label
content: This is a preparatory drawing for a sword sheath that was meant to be embroidered, tooled in leather or painted. An artist cleverly exploited the format by creating a vertical landscape of rocky gorges. His energetic line emphasizes movement, action and volume, apparent especially in the the massing of parallel lines indicating the bears' long fur and the the folds of the hunters' garments. The encounters are varied and dramatic.
label: Label
content: Royal hunts were symbolically important expressions of kingship within the Ancient Near East, Persia and India. Beginning around 1660, artists in Kota began creating extraordinary images of rulers hunting game, which through to the mid-eighteenth century deployed calligraphic contour lines to render animals with great vivacity in highly textured landscapes. This preparatory drawing is characteristic of the Kota style of drawing.
label: Provenance
content: To 1967
label: Provenance
content: Sri Ram Gopal Vijaivargia, Jaipur [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1967 to 2001
label: Provenance
content: Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), purchased from Sri Ram Gopal Vijaivargia, Jaipur in December 1967 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1967 to 2001
label: Provenance
content: Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), purchased from Sri Ram Gopal Vijaivargia, Jaipur in December 1967 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 2001 to 2018
label: Provenance
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Beverly Hills, California, by inheritance from Ralph Benkaim in 2001
label: Provenance
content: From 2018
label: Provenance
content: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, partial gift and purchase from Catherine Glynn Benkaim
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: 1] Ralph Benkaim purchased the drawing from Ram Gopal Vijaivargia, Jaipur in December 1967, several years before Indian paintings were classified as antiquities by the Indian government, according to his personal records, as relayed by Catherine Glynn Benkaim.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Collection
content: National Museum of Asian Art Collection
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Sri Ram Gopal Vijaivargia (1905-2003)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Ralph and Catherine Benkaim
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim (born 1946)
place: label: Origin
content: Kota, Rajasthan state, India
topic: label: Topic
content: bear
label: Topic
content: hunting
label: Topic
content: India
label: Topic
content: South Asian and Himalayan Art
label: Topic
content: Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
setName: label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection — funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: S2018.1.37
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Opaque watercolor on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (overall): 48.9 × 14.6 cm (19 1/4 × 5 3/4 in)