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Lot Essay
The Sursagar ("An Ocean of Verse") is a collection of bhakti poetry devoted to Lord Krishna, attributed to the poet and Hindu Saint Surdas in the sixteenth-century. The text describes the blue-skinned god as a young, lovable child, written from the perspective of one of Braj's gopis, and largely inspired through stories found in the Bhagavata Purana. The verses are considered to be among the finest examples of Brajbhasa, an early dialect of Hindi, at a time when devotional texts were more often composed in Sanskrit or Persian.
The present scene depicts young Krishna, known for his childish pranks, being scolded by his mother Yashoda. A frustrated gopi has returned him to his foster mother, and is exasperatingly venting about his mischief. The Surdas is depicted throughout the series, including in the present composition where he can be found within a small structure in the lower left corner. The blind poet here is playing a pair of cymbals to measure the meter as he recites his poetry.
The present series has been the subject of recent discussion as it can be attributed to the hand Catherine Glynn has now dubbed 'The Master of the Jagged Water's Edge,' named after the artist's lively water banks which can be referenced in the foreground of the present painting, see C. Glynn "A Note on the Master of the Jagged Water's Edge", in A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur, Washington, D.C., 2022. The artist worked under Amar Sing II (r.1698-1710) and Sangram Singh II (r.1710-34), producing well known series during those reigns, including the 1714 Gita Govinda series, the 1719 Sat Sai series, and the present series on the Sursagar.
Additional paintings from this series are in the collections of Yale Art Gallery (acc. no. 2001.138.28), Cleveland Museum of Art (acc. nos. 1984.65 and 1984.172), the Art Institute of Chicago (acc. no. 2004.454), and the San Diego Museum of Art (acc. no.1990.610). Paintings have also sold at Sotheby's New York, 17 March 2015, lot 1132 and Sotheby's London, 7 October 2015, lot 289.
The present scene depicts young Krishna, known for his childish pranks, being scolded by his mother Yashoda. A frustrated gopi has returned him to his foster mother, and is exasperatingly venting about his mischief. The Surdas is depicted throughout the series, including in the present composition where he can be found within a small structure in the lower left corner. The blind poet here is playing a pair of cymbals to measure the meter as he recites his poetry.
The present series has been the subject of recent discussion as it can be attributed to the hand Catherine Glynn has now dubbed 'The Master of the Jagged Water's Edge,' named after the artist's lively water banks which can be referenced in the foreground of the present painting, see C. Glynn "A Note on the Master of the Jagged Water's Edge", in A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur, Washington, D.C., 2022. The artist worked under Amar Sing II (r.1698-1710) and Sangram Singh II (r.1710-34), producing well known series during those reigns, including the 1714 Gita Govinda series, the 1719 Sat Sai series, and the present series on the Sursagar.
Additional paintings from this series are in the collections of Yale Art Gallery (acc. no. 2001.138.28), Cleveland Museum of Art (acc. nos. 1984.65 and 1984.172), the Art Institute of Chicago (acc. no. 2004.454), and the San Diego Museum of Art (acc. no.1990.610). Paintings have also sold at Sotheby's New York, 17 March 2015, lot 1132 and Sotheby's London, 7 October 2015, lot 289.