An illustration from a Ragamala series: Bhairava Raga, India, Mewar, circa 1650

Sotheby’s, London, 23 March 2000, lot 199

Ex-private collection, USA

This illustration is attributed to the Muslim artist Sahibdin who was active between the years 1628 and 1655. Sahibdin was the most important painter working at the Mewar royal court in the seventeenth century. Under his patron, Maharana Jagat Singh I, he developed an expressive and lyrical style which influenced the next few generations of artists at Udaipur. For further discussion on the artist, see A. Topsfield, ‘Sahibdin’, in M.C. Beach, E. Fischer, B.N. Goswamy, Masters of Indian Painting 1100-1650, Zurich, 2011, pp.391-406. See also A. Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur, Zurich, 2001, pp.64-66.