A nobleman and his entourage being entertained by nautch girls and musicians
Patna, attributed to Siva Lal, circa 1850-60
gouache on paper, in possibly contemporary rosewood frame
200 x 250 mm.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Private UK collection.

Descending from already successful Patna artists (and producing later generations of painters who stretched into the 20th Century), the artist Siva Lal (circa 1817-1887) worked alongside his cousin Siva Dayal Lal, in slightly different styles, and were prominent in the town, with a good deal of contact with the British.

Two other versions of the painting, with small differences in terms of colour and faces, are known: the first in the Victoria & Albert Museum (IS.201-1949), illustrated in Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period, London 1992, pp. 92-93, no. 61. In this painting the figures are given a backdrop of a palace courtyard with a dome and cupola, as opposed to the blank backdrop of our painting. The second is in the British Museum (1989,0415,0.1). with the same blank background and is otherwise the same as our painting, with the exception of some of the musicians' accoutrements, the addition of a bolster at lower right, and the placement of the nautch girls closer to the nobleman's hookah.

On Siva Lal and his cousin, Shiva Dayal Lal (circa 1820-1880), probably the earliest discussion is in M. Archer, Patna Painting, London 1947, esp. pp. 22-25. For a discussion of Patna painting in general, see M. Archer, Company Drawings in the India Office Library, London 1972, pp. 97-101; and M. Archer, Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period, London 1992, pp. 84-85.