Collection of Sir Ganga Singh, Maharajah of Bikaner♎ (1880 – 1943).

Collection o🌄f Dr. William K. Ehrenfeld (1934-2005), San Francisco.

Acquired directly from the Ehrenfeld collection by the cu𓂃rrent owner, 8th December 1988.

Daniel Ehnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection, New York, 1985, cat. no. 68.

Indian Miniatures from the Ehrenfeld Collection, The American Federation of the Arts, New York

September 1985 - March 1988, cat. no. 68.

At the center of the composition the priest Garga arrives in Vraja to officiat💙e the naming of the boy Krishna, who is shown as fair-skinned rather than his usual blue along with his brother Balarama. Gaꦍrga speaks with their father Nanda at the left and performs the ceremony. The towns of Mathura, Brindaban and Govardhana are visible in the distance. The sky is streaked with gold clouds as the evening sets.

This magnificent large-scale painting belongs to a large series of around one hundred folios, illustrating episodes of the Bhagavata Purana, which were produced during the reign of Maharaja Anup Singh of Bikaner (r.1674-98) and begun likely before circa 1690 and continued into the early eighteenth century. Numerous artists from the royal Bikaner painting workshops were employed on the project - and there is a notable difference in compositional style between the later and earlier folios which may reflect the chronology of the episodes - the earlier paintings like our present example being scenes from Krishna's 🌌childhood, which are depicted in continuous narration. The present painting can be identified as being from among the earlier examples with its jewel-like malachite green ground, silvery Jamuna River diagonally flowing toward the bottom and the vast compositional expanse with the figures in extremely fine detail - as well as the distant landscape with its minuscule depictions of t💙own, people and animals.

Another example from the series (from the same time period of production) depicting the infant Krishna's battle with Bakasura the Crane Demon is in the Kronos Collections - a promised gift (2015) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York (object number: SL.21.2016.1.18), illustrated by Terence McInerney, Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts—The Kronos Collections, New York, 2016, cat. no. 25. Another example sold in these 💧rooms, 25th March 1987 lot 143 (and cover image), depicting Krishna the Butter Thief with its continuous narrative showing the stealing of butter, being scolded by Yashoda, his felling of the two great Arjuna trees and the proud returning of his father Nanda and cowherds accompanied by Krishna'𒅌s lively scampering childhood friends and worshipful Devas.

See also another example depicting Krishna defeating Bakasura, sold in these rooms, 22nd March 2002, lot 19, from the Gloria 🦋Katz and Willard Huyck Collection, and more recently at Christie's New York, 10th November 2022, lot 195, from the collection of Paul G. Allen.