Avalokiteshvara in the form of Rato Matsyendranath

Object Details

• Provenance

  At least after 1965-1990

  H. Robert Slusser (1916-1999) and Mary Slusser (née Shepherd) (1918-2017), method of acquisition unknown [1]

  From 1990

  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of H. Robert Slusser and Mary Slusser (née Shepherd) [2]

  Notes:

  [1] H. Robert Slusser and Mary Slusser lived in Nepal between 1965 and 1972. Mary Slusser frequently returned to Nepal, her final visit was in 2008. See “Custody Receipt,” dated November 14, 1990, copy in object file. The object was transferred from Mary Slusser to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery for acquisition consideration on November 14, 1990.

  Mary Shepherd Slusser, an anthropologist and archaeologist, and her husband H. Robert Slusser, an economist with USAID, lived in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam during 1954-1957 and visited Cambodia many times during that interlude. The Slussers subsequently lived in Nepal during 1965-1972, where Mrs. Slusser became a founding board member of Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust. Her publications, including Nepal Mandala (1981, 1998), document the valley's art and architecture. Mr. Slusser retired in 1980, and the Slussers permanently settled in Washington, DC, where Mary became a research associate at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. See David P. Rehfuss, "Ceramic Sherds from Southeast Asia—The Freer Study Collection and its Donors," Ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia: Collections in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2008, http://SEAsianCeramics.asia.si.edu.

  [2] See Arthur M. Sackler, “Acquisition Consideration Form,” approved on November 26, 1990, copy in object file. See also “Deed of Gift to the Arthur M. Sacker Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution,” dated January 16, 1991, copy in object file.

  Research updated July 18, 2023

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Dr. Mary Shepherd Slusser (1918-2017)

  H. Robert Slusser (1916-1999)

• Origin

  Nepal

• Credit Line

  Gift of Mr. and Mrs. H. Robert Slusser

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1600s, 1790s

• Name

  Slusser, H. Robert, Slusser, Mary Shepherd

• Place

  Nepal

• Topic

  South Asian and Himalayan Art, Art, Mahasiddha, Avalokite?svara (Buddhist deity), Bodhisattva

• Culture

  Buddhists, Himalayan peoples, South Asians

• Object Type

  Paintings