A Western Horned Pheasant

This lively painting depicts the phulgar, or Western Horned Pheasant (Tragopan
Melanocephalus). It has black and gray speckled plumage, a crested and wattled head, and the
color orange on its face and neck feathers.
Painting at Mandi, a relatively large kingdom in the Punjab Hills, did not really get underway
until the middle of the eighteenth century. It reached an apogee of creativity during the reign of
Raja Isvari Sen (r. 1788­l826), who was under the cultural sway of painting­mad Kangra and
Guler, the two kingdoms which supplied a number of Isvari Sen’s favorite artists. His leading
court painter was Sajnu, originally from Kangra or Guler, the artist of the present work.
Sajnu (fl. 1806­20), like Nainsukh (cat. nos. 69­70) and the Basohli Master of the Early
Rasamanjari (cat. nos. 37­38) before him, did much to transform the style of painting
everywhere in the Punjab Hills. Early nineteenth century Pahari painting was greatly influenced
by his elaborate, decorative borders; his geometric, mannered compositions; jagged rocks; and
spatial complexity. After Sajnu (and his near contemporary, Phurku of Kangra), nothing would
look quite the same again. Probably the artist’s major achievement was the creation of a set of
twenty­one illustrated folios comprising a Hamir­Hath Series, dated to the same year as the
present work. (1)
This relatively simple and straightforward study from life captures Sajnu in an
uncharacteristically relaxed moment. (2) The feeling of lively, suspended movement and the
feathery texture and color articulation of the phulgar are exceptional. Sajnu probably made
separate studies such as this one in order to incorporate supporting elements into his more
complex figural compositions.
94.
(1) W.G. Archer 1973, Vol. I, pp. 360­61
(2) For __ other Pahari studies of birds, see Seyller and Mittal 2015 nos.________.

Inscription: Inscribed on the front in black ink written in devanagari script: “In a.d. 1810 [Samvat 1867], sastra samvat 86, on the eleventh day of jyestha, [this] phulgar was painted by Sajnu.”

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts—The Kronos Collections," June 13–September 11, 2016.