Artist · 3 prints
Basohli school Prints
About the Basohli School
Basohli painting is a school of Pahari miniature painting that flourished in the hill states of the Himalayan foothills in the late 17th and 18th centuries. It takes its name from the small independent state of Basohli, its main centre, though examples are found throughout the region. Its origins are obscure: one of the earliest known works, a series illustrating the Rasamanjari of about 1690, already shows the style fully formed.
Basohli pictures are usually oblong, framed by architecture that often breaks into characteristic red borders. Faces are stylised and shown in profile, with a large, intense eye. Colour is always brilliant, with ochre yellow, brown and green grounds; jewellery is painted with thick raised drops of white paint, and fragments of green beetle wing stand in for emeralds. The Basohli manner continued at many hill centres until about the mid-18th century, when the softer Kangra style replaced it.
Basohli school prints: reproductions of miniature paintings in the Basohli style from the Himalayan hill states, made between about 1690 and 1760. The collection includes Maharaja Sital Dev in Devotion (1690), Dipak Raga: Personifying Love (1690) and Brahma Hides the Cowherds and the Calves in the Cave (1760).
This selection covers devotion, music and myth: a ruler at worship, a ragamala page for Dipak Raga, and a scene from the Krishna story in which Brahma hides the cowherds and calves.
The intense colour holds its own on plain walls in living rooms, studies and hallways. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
