VISHNU AND SARASVATI (2523/1)                                                                                                              

 Opaque watercolor on paper 

Kangra School 1980

Circa 1850

13 cm x 23 cm / 5.125” x 9.125”

EXHIBITED

Lycoming College Gallery, Williamsport, Pennsylvania; 1981

 DESCRIPTION: Vishnu and Sarasvati. Are shown  together on a lotus pad floating over pond sprinkled with scatter lotus blooms and  pads. Sarasvati’s white birds are in the foreground. Vishnu gazing adoring at Sarasvati holds in his four hands, the wheel, conch , mace and lotus. Vishnu is richly ornamented with garlands, bracelets, and earrings. On his head he wears a golden crown. The colors are muted, and the red-grays of the landscape serve to set the scene and places  focus on the  figures. In the background a bearably discernible hill over which pinkish clouds rides. Red borders with two yellow stripes. This type of isolated scene occurs occasionally in Kangra painting.