Postcard from USSR
1963 for ‘Modern Artist of India’ series.
Srinagar by Biren De, 1963
Kashmir in The Wide World, 1948
Continuing with theme of Kashmir in European style…
From my personal collection, Kashmir on the cover of July 1948 issue of a London based magazine called The Wide World.
European ‘Village Life in Kashmir’, 1760
Village Life in Kashmir, c. 1760. By Mughal painter Mir Kalan Khan. A painting imitating European style, explaining why Kashmiri village here looks more like an alpine village.
Via: British Library:
“Gouache painting with gold of village life in Kashmir, by Mir Kalan Khan, working in the Lucknow/Faizabad style, c.1760. Inscribed on the border in Persian: ‘majlis-i kashmir, ‘amal-i mir kalan’ (A Kashmiri assembly, the work of Mir Kalan).
This painting depicts scenes of village life and in the centre a group of people are shown gathering grapes and wood while also cooking. On either side are several multi-storied buildings, and numerous waterways can be seen in the distance with buildings on the land in between. Mir Kalan Khan’s distinctive Europeanised style was adopted by other Lucknow artists, yet this kind of scene and subject matter remained unique to Khan. The source of his European influence is uncertain, but his extensive scenes often relate to Dutch and Flemish paintings. The facial type is distinctive, with frequent use of three-quarter face instead of profile. The artists place of origin is uncertain, but he may have been trained at the Delhi court, indicating that he came to Faizabad or Lucknow later in his life.”
-0-
Kashmiris by Alexandre Jacovleff, 1931
In 1931-1932 as Georges-Marie Haardt’s Trans-Asiatic Expedition made its way from Beirut to Beijing on, tagging along was as an ‘Artistic Advisor’ was a brilliant Russian artist named Alexandre Yevgenievich Jacovleff (1887-1938). Jacovleff kept a log of the journey, etching his experiences and impressions in a diary and later painting over them to create one of the most fascinating ethnographic collection based on the lives of people living in the remotest of Central Asian Regions.
Some of the paintings were published by National Geographic (Vol. 50, 1931) which had sponsored the Expedition. Some more were published by Jacovleff in 1934 in a work titled ‘Dessins et Peintures d’Asie exécutés au cours de l’expédition Citroën Centre-Asie. Troisième mission G.-M. Haardt, L. Audouin-Dubreuil. Éditée sous la direction de Lucien Vogel’ And some works made it to private collections.
Kashmir was an important pitstop in the journey that took them through Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Mongolia and China.
Collected from various sources here are Kashmiris by Alexandre Jacovleff, to which I am adding some notes.
 |
|
Painting: Danseaurs cachemiri, Schrinagar
Kashmiri Dancers, Srinagar
|
 |
| Original Etching in ‘Dessins et Peintures d’Asie exécutés au cours de l’expédition Citroën Centre-Asie’ |
 |
|
Chanteur cachemire. Schrinagar
Kashmiri Singer, Srinagar
|
 |
|
Caption in book reads: Danseaur cachemiri, Schrinagar
Kashmiri Dancer, Srinagar.
But the note on the painting reads Kashmiri Dancer, Astor.
|
 |
| A page from a government of India publication on Kashmir, 1955 |
The dance for is known as ‘Bach’e Nagma’ or ‘Kid Dance’ in Kashmir. And still remains popular.
 |
| Portrait of Kashmiri dancer/Bacha Gulzar Ahmed from Budgam. In Noida, Delhi. 2011. |
 |
| Top Right: Kashmiri at Bandipore Below it: Baba …Das…(Udhasi). Pandit at Sopore |
 |
| Portrait D’Homme Du Cashmere Portrait of a man of Kashmir Pandit Shreedhar Raina Officer in charge Government Telegraph Office Misagar Gilgit Kashmir |
-0-
Aside note
 |
| Notice the headgear on the Khirgiz woman drawn by Jacovleff |
 |
| A Kashmiri woman drawn by drawn by H.R. Pirie in around 1908 |
 |
| Screenshot from the first Kashmiri feature length film ‘Mainz Raat’, 1964. Set on life in rural Kashmir. |
-0-
Robert S. Duncanson’s Vale(s) of Kashmir
African-American artist Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872), considered one of the greatest landscape painters of America, inspired by Thomas Moore’s epic poem Lalla Rookh (1817), imagined Kashmir and painted it on canvas.
He was to paint ‘Vale of Kashmir’ a couple of times. Each time, Kashmir looked like a fantastical tropical oasis with huge fountains.
 |
| Vale of Kashmir, 1864 found it in ‘The Emergence of the African-American Artist: Robert S. Duncanson, 1821-1872’ by Joseph D. Ketner |
 |
| Vale of Kashmir, 1870 |
-0-
Vikatanitamba
 |
| Nayikas in Rasamanjari. Basohli Painting (~18th Century). |
At the side of the bed
the knot came undone by itself,
and barely held by the sash
the robe slipped to my waist.
My friend, it’s all I know: I was in his arms
and I can’t remember who was who
or what we did or how
~ verses of 9th century Kashmiri poetess named Vikatanitamba ( literally ‘Horrible Hind’), translated by Mexican poet Octavio Paz. Not much is known about the woman except that (like a lot of later Kashmiri poetesses) she had a sad marriage. She was married to a man with much lesser language skills than her (in fact, the guy had (like a lot of Kashmiris) pronunciation troubles).
-0-
music dies in Kashmir
“It is said that music is born in bengal, grows up in Outh, grows old in the Panjab and dies in Kashmir…”
~ Ananda Coomaraswamy
~ Ananda Coomaraswamy
 |
| Shalimar Gardens. William Simpson. 1823. About the performance he wrote,it was “the sweet delusion of a never to be forgotten night.” |
 |
| Newsclip about Ratan Devi’s performance in New York Vassar Miscellany News, Volume X, Number 18, 25 November 1925 Interesting note by Willain Buttler Yearts. |
-0-
Finally tracked down Kashmiri songs documented by the couple in 1911.
-0-
Kashmiri Shawl in European Paintings
 |
| Marquise de Sorcy de Thelusson, Portrait in 1790 by Jacques Louis David |
The portrait of Marquise de Sorcy de Thelusson by Jacques Louis David is considered the first appearance of Kashmiri Shawl on European canvas.
 |
| Madame Philibert Riviere by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1806 |
 |
| L’Imperatrice Josephine (1809) by Antoine -Jean Gros (Musee Massena) |
The famous story of Kashmiri shawls arriving in Europe goes like this:
In around 1796, in the time of Abdulla Khan, an Afghan Governor of Kashmir, a blind man named Sayyid Yahyah came to Kashmir from Bhagdad, and left with a orange Shawl as a gift from the governor. The Sayyid then went to Egypt, and gave it to the Khedive (Ruler) there. When Napoleon arrived in Egypt, Khedive gave the same shawl as present to him. In turn, Napoleon on reaching back France gave it to Josephine. It was Josephine who made it, a Shawl worn in the subcontinent by men, a rich fashion statement for women.
 |
| Will You go out with me, Fido?, by Alfred Stevens, 1859 |
 |
| Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert by Claude Monet, 1868 |
Based on some of the names and a sequence given in ‘Flowers, Dragons and Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art’ by Mary M. Dusenbur.
-0-
Jamavar Shawl and Monet
A Guest post by Komal Kaul on discovering a bit of Kashmir in an art exhibit in Chicago.
I recently went to the Chicago Art Institute , where they had a special exhibit on Impressionism , Fashion and Mordern Art. One of the paintings ( actually a loaner from Met Museum of Art NY) was this:
 |
| Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert, 1868 |
The lady in the paintings actually has a very intricately embroidered Koshur Jamavar Shawl. The artist is Claude Monet.
-0-
Kashmir by V.V. Vereshchagin, 1885
Two oil-painting of Kashmiri landscape by Russian artist V.V. Vereshchagin, more known for painting graphic battle scenes. He visited the place around April, 1885.
 |
| Mountain stream in Kashmir 1885 |
 |
| Glacier on way from Kashmir to Ladakh [via: wikipaintings.org ] 1885 [Update: Man Mohan Munshi Ji identified the place as Machoi Glacier between Zogilla Pass and Matyan. |
There were later used in his two volume autobiograpical travelogue ‘Vassili Verestchagin, painter, soldier, traveller; autobiographical sketches ‘(1887) with the capter on India by his wife.
