A fancy pigeon, North India, probably Rajasthan, late 18th/early 19th century

gouache on paper, reverse with stamp of Kumar Sangram Singh of Nawalgarh painting no.AJ.39, and inscribed '43', '20618.9' (a Harvard Museums number), '556.1983' (the Fogg Art Museum loan number) and other notes (indecipherable)




19.3 by 25.5cm. (7⅝by 10 1/16 in.)

backing paper: 20.5 by 26.7cm. (8 1/16 by 10½in.)

Provenance

Acquired by Cary Welch before 1983

Exhibited

On loan at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1983

Catalogue note

This eye-catching painting of a fancy pigeon is a remarkable achievement of artistic skill and vision. Although the form appears exaggerated and stylised, it depicts a real species of pigeon known as an Indian Fantail pigeon. The painting has an exquisitely textured surface that becomes brilliantly apparent when viewed with raking light. In order to represent the dove’s plumage the artist has covered the surface with thousands of tiny brush strokes in different patterns in a low-relief impasto technique to imitate the patterns and individual filaments of the feathers. The patience and surehandedness required to achieve this result is truly remarkable.




Pigeon-keeping, including selective breeding, training and display-flying, has been a popular pastime among the India for many centuries. It was been popular among the Central Asian ancestors of the Mughals during the medieval period - the 15^th century Timurid prince Umar Shaykh Mirza (Babur’s father) died while watching his own birds flying when their pigeon house collapsed (Baburnama, p.8; Akbarnama p.220). Emperor Akbar (r.1556-1605) was a particularly keen pigeon-fancier, keeping over twenty thousand in the royal dovecotes, and foreign dignitaries would send specimens from abroad to add to the royal flock. The Ain-i Akbari, describes Akbar’s selective breeding programme and special diets as well as their plumage, training and flying and the displays and aerial tumbling (Ain-i Akbari, vol.1, pp.310-1). The 18^th century poet Valih (Sayyid Muhammad Musavi) wrote a poetical treatise on pigeons entitled Kabutaranamah (The Book of Pigeons) describing the different types of pigeons and their aerial displays (an illustrated copy is in the British Library, IO Islamic 4811). Paintings and drawings of pigeons abound in Indian painting of the 16^th to 19^th century, including several that show similar fantail pigeons to the present example, see, e.g., Falk and Digby 1979, cat.22, pp.48-49; Canby 1998, no.114, p.153.




Cary Welch had attributed this painting to both Kishangarh and Basohli in the 18^th century (private notes and a note on the mount). No other paintings that resemble this work are known in Pahari painting, the few studies of individual birds from the Hill Schools being very different in style (see Seyller and Mittal 2014, pp.158-173; Fraser 2017, no.17, pp.46-47), and it is more likely to originate from Rajasthan. The singular form of this painting makes it difficult to attribute to a particular school. The exaggerated profile brings to mind a number of Kishangarh works of the 18th century, but a more closely comparable accentuation and stylisation is found in depictions of horses, camels and other forms in Jodhpur works of the early 19^th century (Crill 1999, figs.95, 97, 104-6, 109, 115-6, 131, 136). It is also worth noting that the paintings of the Cosmic Oceans attributed to Bulaki dated 1823 feature a similar textural technique in the mesmerising depictions of the ocean waves (Mehrangah Museum Trust, Jodhpur, see Diamond, Glynn and Jasol 2008, cats. 56a-g, pp.255). This is apparent not only in the meticulous parallel wave forms of Bulaki’s works, but also in the use of thickly applied pigment to produce surface texture, either to give a raised effect or to allow incising of the surface.