A Snapshot Of India

The auctions featured both Rosa Bonheur’s horse paintings and the Indian landscapes by traveling painters.

Whilethe *Study of a Brown Horse* (65x81cm —see Gazette No.25) by Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899) easily doubled its high estimate to€ 64, 000, the real surprise came from the paintings of India, which soared well beyond their estimates. A case in point is this panorama of the Satti Chaura Steps in Kanpur on the banks of the Ganges, which had a high estimate of€2,000and sold for €29,854—a world record for the artist. The artist is Évremond de Bérard, a traveling artist and member of the Geographical Society and the Imperial Zoological Society. In 1877, the Ministry of Public Instruction, Religious Affairs, and Fine Arts commissioned him on a two-year exploratory mission to the Himalayas and Northern India to document “botany and anthropology.” Upon his return to France, he translated his field studies into paintings, such as this one, most of which were commissioned by the government. They preserve the sense of wonder of this erudite adventurer, who succumbed to malaria a year after his return. Some thirty years later, c. 1910, the merchant and self-taught painter John Gleich (1879–after 1927) also took an interest in the picturesque aspects of daily life during a journey that took him from Sri Lanka to a Lively Scene in Udaipur, India (91×80.5cm), a painting that sold for €14,476. In the same city, a follower of Edwin Lord Weeks (1849–1903) was captivated by *Lake Palace* (80x136cm), which sold for €11,033. Another€10, 643was neededfor *Women in a Palace in India* (95×54.5cm), painted by Federico de Madrazo y Ochoa (1875–1934).