Shivalal, 1868
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Sheet, 69.9 × 107.6 cm
The City Palace Museum, Udaipur, 2012.19.0040
The ground shimmers in white daubs and watery greens as Shivalal paints himself, brush in hand, at the bottom of the scene. Streaks of blue and red drip down the paper on his drawing board. The edges pool with liquid color liberated by the rain, staining the front of his garment red. He captures a landscape glistening with moisture, lit by shafts of serpentine light breaking through dark gray monsoon clouds.
—Spriha Gupta, graduate student, NYU
Wet from monsoon rains, the ground glistens in white daubs of paint. Shivalal paints himself, paintbrush in hand, at the bottom of the frame. He happily allows rain to splash the paper on his drawing board. Liquid paint dances on this painting within a painting.
With a strikingly dry brush, Shivalal depicts a group of nomads herding cattle and moving through the lush hills. Four years later, under British colonial rule, laws would be passed to criminalize the movements of certain mobile communities. Here, Shivalal draws them into the landscape of Udaipur.
With a keen eye for the movements of animals, Shivalal paints tigers roaring and frenzied boars charging down hills in the vicinity of Baadi lake. Rabbits, gazelles, and deer dart for cover in the textured brush. Shivalal fills the painting with the sights and sounds of animals and people celebrating the rains.
Authored by
Spriha Gupta
