Osian's Auction Catalogue Masterpieces and Museum-Quality III | March 2004

45 MASTERPIECES & MUSEUM-QUALITY III 13 KHAN BAHADUR SYED AHMED (1889-1974? / Aurangabad, present-day Maharashtra) Maiden, From Cave No. 2 Ajanta. S/d in English l.r. Watercolour on paper, 1929 49.9 x 19.2 cm (19.6 x 7.6 in) Damage to l.l. and t.r. section of the work with minor chipping of paint throughout. Restoration work will be required on this rare painting by the master of the Ajanta reproduction. Provenance The Mukund & Nirja Lath Family Collection, Jaipur Rs. 300,000 – 375,000 US$ 6,650 – 8,350 GB£ 3,650 – 4,550 “ With the decline of Buddhism about the 7th century A.D., Ajanta, passed into the limbo of oblivion… it was not until the beginning of the 19th century that the world was reminded of them…The first copies of the wall paintings were attempted by Major Robert Gill (1844-63)… The second serious attempt was made by John Griffiths, who completed his work by 1885… The third attempt was made by Lady Herringham (1906-1911) with Syed Ahmed amongst others employed to copy the frescoes… Several of his (Syed Ahmed) copies decorate British, American and Japanese museums. He has done more than anyone else to popularise the art of Ajanta.” (Manu Thacker & G. Venkatachalam, rpt. in Present- Day Painters Of India 1950 ; pp.4-5.) “ Woman is the finest achievement of their art, and obviously its most admired theme…They struggled to reproduce every turn of her head, every curve of her form, every glance of her eye. She enthralled them with her airs and graces; enmeshed them in the mysteries of her toilet, more strongly than does the Parisienne the painter of today. They produced tirelessly and with a discriminating knowledge her bewildering coiffures; they decked her in painstaking manner with the most beautiful trinkets they could devise…The Ajanta Masters use Women as their best decorative asset with brilliant zest and extraordinary knowledge … one feels at Ajanta that Woman is treated not as an individual, but as a principle. She is there not female merely, but the incarnation of all the beauty of the world. Hence, with all her gaiety, her charm, her insouciance, she never loses her dignity, and nowhere is she belittled or besmirched.” (Captain W. E. Gladstone Solomon, rpt. in Guide to Ajanta Frescoes . The Archaeological Department: H.E.H. The Nizam’s Government 1930; pp.21-2.) Opposite Life of Buddha, Cave 1, Wall Painting I from John Griffith’s book. The Paintings in the Buddhist Cave- Temples of Ajanta. Vol I, plate 7. Hand coloured lithograph, 1896.