Maharaja Ghamand Chand of Kangra Smoking with Maharaja Devi Chand of Bilaspur, Pahari / Kangra, circa 1765

Collection of Dr. William K. Ehrenfeld (1934-2005), San Francisco.

Acquired directly from the Ehrenfeld collection by the current owner, 8th December 1988.

Indian Miniatures from the Ehrenfeld Collection, The American Federation of the Arts, New York

September 1985 - March 1988.

W. G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills: A Survey and History of Pahari Miniature Painting,

London and New York, 1973, Vol. I, pp. 280-81 and Vol II, p. 194.

Daniel Ehnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection, New York, 1985, cat. no. 114.

The two rulers, Maharaja Ghamand Chand of Kangra and Maharaja Devi Chand of Bilaspur, political allies and interrelated by marriage - sit facing each other on a carpeted terrace and smoking hukkahs.

They are accompanied by attendants and courtiers - with two waving morchals (ceremonial fans) and two ministers standing below. Behind them the flat gold-brownish landscape curves upwards to a strip of blue cloudy sky edged with a vermilion sunset.

Our superb double portrait is executed in a Mughal-influenced naturalistic style which seems to have emerged fully-formed in Kangra around the middle of the Eighteenth century. Realistic portraits such as the present example were almost certainly influenced by the artist Nainsukh of Guler and his school - a style which was rapidly gaining in popularity across the Punjab Hills in the mid 18th century.