Lot Essay

The present painting from Guler depicts the Lord Ganesha seated on a lotus flower. In his trunk he holds a ladoo, the god’s preferred sweetmeat, and his four arms carry an elephant goad, a rosary and a second ladoo. The image is strikingly painted using a restricted palette, and is unusual in that the god is shown crowned. The horizontal stripes on his body indicate the Shiva ambit of his worship. Compare the present lot to a similar Pahari painting of Ganesha seated on a lotus flower from circa 1720, from the collection of the British Museum (acc. no. 1966,0212,0.3).