Important Notice

Among the most prominent Indian painters of his time, Mahadev Visvanath Dhurandhar created a rich body of work depicting scenes from Indian history, literature, and mythology, articulated in a Western academic style, over the course of his decades-long career. His "... popularity among the masses, finesse in art and related services to the British government" was such that he was awarded the title of Rao Bahadur in 1927. (Suhas Bahulkar quoted... Among the most prominent Indian painters of his time, Mahadev Visvanath Dhurandhar created a rich body of work depicting scenes from Indian history, literature, and mythology, articulated in a Western academic style, over the course of his decades-long career. His "... popularity among the masses, finesse in art and related services to the British government" was such that he was awarded the title of Rao Bahadur in 1927. (Suhas Bahulkar quoted in Kishore Singh ed., "M V Dhurandhar," Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art, 2016, New Delhi: DAG, p. 172)

Like Raja Ravi Varma, who was one of the best-known artists of his time, Dhurandhar managed to maintain a "fine balance between popular commercial art and the academic realism" as can be noticed in his highly detailed watercolours and lavish oil paintings. "In his own right, as a dutiful teacher in the British-run JJ School of Art and also as a successful painter, Dhurandhar was to impress the coming three generations of artists. Although his use of the brush was almost ascetic, he had a princely eye for detail. No wonder this Kolhapur-born artist, who retained his indigenous and vernacular values in the same breath as the high English etiquette, refined this very dichotomy when he painted." (Abhijeet Tamhane, Manifestations II: Indian Art in the 20th Century,ew Delhi: DAG, 2004, p. 91)

Besides his teaching job at the JJ School of Art, where he would temporarily occupy the post of Director in 1930, becoming the first Indian painter to do so, Dhurandhar also "made full use of the opportunities resulting from advances in printing technologies" at the time, by taking up commissions for illustrations in books and periodicals, as well as for calendars, advertisements, posters, postcards and other materials. (Ritu Vajpeyi Mohan ed., M V Dhurandhar: The Romantic Realist, New Delhi: DAG, 2018, p. 40)

Dhurandhar followed in the footsteps of Raja Ravi Varma when it came to illustrating characters and episodes from India's rich mythological subjects onto his canvas, as evident in the present lot which depicts Hindu deity Vishnu. Dhurandhar had been inspired by Ravi Varma's works while growing up and was able to begin and nurture a relationship with the latter during his lifetime. It was during an exhibition hosted by the Bombay Art Society in 1896 that Dhurandhar finally had the chance to meet him. Ravi Varma, who was one of the invitees, was particularly struck by one of Dhurandhar's oil paintings, titled The Music Lesson. The model of the painting was the same as the one in many of Ravi Varma's paintings of goddesses. Ravi Varma "bought the painting and, subsequently, printed multiple copies at his lithopress, as a result of which it soon reached many households. Thus started Dhurandhar's association with Raja Ravi Varma, one that would last till the latter's death in 1906, and one that would impact Dhurandhar's art practice considerably." (Mohan ed., p. 39)

Painted in 1904, the present lot also comes from a time where "Dhurandhar had done many illustrations for Shriman Sheth Purushottam Vishram Mavji's monthly magazine Swarnamala. These were based on mythological themes, including Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagwad Gita, Ganeshapurana and Shivapurana." (Singh ed., p. 222) Dhurandhar's popularity soared, and his work made a lasting impression on the masses.

In the present lot, the four-handed god is depicted with a shankha (conch shell) and chakra (discus) on each of his two raised arms, while the lowered hands hold a gada (mace) and padma (lotus) each. Even as he is depicted with heavy ornamentation, standing atop a lotus leaf and surrounded by a slight halo, as he is typically imagined, his form is distinctly human. Like Ravi Varma, Dhurandhar depicted his mythological figures in a natural human style rather than the traditional supernatural imagery used to convey gods, goddesses and their myths or tales, using oil as a medium and incorporating European naturalism and realism.

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