Kapur Singh of Amristar attributed, study of a glassblower, circa 1880, gouache on paper,...

Kapur Singh of Amristar attributed, study of a glassblower, circa 1880, gouache on paper, within mauve border, 16.2 x 11.2cm.

Provenance: Bonhams 12 October 2005, Lot 428 (part lot), from an album of Punjabi costumes and occupations commissioned by Augustus W. Honner of the 1st Grenadiers, in Bombay 1843. Kapur Singh was one of the artists working on the album. See also lot 427 from the same Bonhams sale for another pair of paintings from the album attributed to Kapur Singh. Another painting attributed to Kapur by Honner himself and dated 15/10/1866 appears in M. Archer, Company Drawings in the India Office Library, HMSO, London, 1972, p. 225, no. 187 i and ii.

Kapur Singh, commonly referred to as 'Kapur Singh of Amritsar', was the nephew of Bishan Singh (circa 1836-1900) and one of the most famous Sikh artist of the 19th century. He worked almost entirely in watercolour concentrating on Company paintings depicting general life in the Punjab. However, he is the only known late 19th century Sikh artist to make the transition to oil painting in the western style with such accomplishment. Descended from a long line of Sikh painters, his father, Kishan Singh was also a highly regarded Punjabi artist. Members of the family were in fact responsible for the murals and floral motifs on the walls inside the Golden Temple.

In many ways Kapur Singh took the challenge of meeting western art modes on his own terms. Some of his studies were inscribed in English, and others are depicted realistically but also clearly by an artist trained in the Mughal tradition with the miniaturist's attention to minute detail. W.G. Archer mentions Kapur Singh being noted by Percy Brown as 'painting a large number of figure subjects, miniature in size and showing a fair knowledge of drawing with considerable action' (Brown, Indian Painting, Calcutta 1917, p. 62, quoted in Susan Strong (ed.), The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms, London 1999, pp. 174-75).