Add Or 3822

A lady feeding a parrot.

By Chandu Lal of Rajol, Kangra, 1966.

Presented by Michael Archer, December 1975.

Inscribed on reverse in Persian: ‘Raina Chandu Lal musavvir Rajol mavarkha 4.1.66’ (Raina Chandu Lal, painter, Rajol, dated 4.1.66).

Gouache; decorated black and pink borders.

220 by 151 mm; page 270 by 201 mm.

A lady dressed in orange and yellow feeds a parrot, perched in a blossoming shrub by the terrace.

Note: Both this and Add.Or.3920 were purchased from the artist by W.G. Archer at the rest house, Kangra Fort, March 1966. According to statements made to W.G. Archer by Chandu Lal, his father, Lakshman Das of Rajol, was a direct descendant of the artists Seu, Nainsukh and Nikka. Chandu Lal himself took five days to complete this picture, first drawing it with a pencil, and then adding a red outline. His practice was to buy red from the bazaar, but to make green from indigo, white from stones, and lamp black from a mustard-oil lamp. He did not do wall-paintings since he believed that this would rob his paintings of their fineness and delicacy. He used Sialkoti paper, bought from money lenders at a cost of five or six rupees for one old ledger. As regards his relatives, his grandfather Ram Dayal had worked at Mandi for Raja Bijai Sen (1851-1902), Gokul and Chhajju’s son had worked at Jammu, and Kiru had died in Patiala where he had worked about twenty-five years previously. Dhani Chand was a carpenter, still alive, in Rajol, who at times provided wall-paintings for marriages. Maheshu, father of Kiru, had worked for a time in Garhwal. For further details of this artist and his family, ‘see’ Goswamy (1967); W.G. Archer (1973), I, 309-10.