The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 3, 2023

Sugriva

c. 1720

This object has related works. See Khadgaroma, Son of Ravana

Southern India, Andhra Pradhesh

Gum tempera, ink, and hand-colored silver paper appliqué on paper

Overall: 35.5 x 23.5 cm (14 x 9 1/4 in.)

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Ward 1975.73

Location

242B Indian Painting

Fun Fact

Instead of gold, artists applied strips of paper, colored with a mixture of silver paint and an organic yellow pigment called gamboge.

Description

The seated monkey king Sugriva presents the “fear not” gesture with his right hand. He served as Rama’s faithful ally during the war against Ravana. This work appears to have been made for French Jesuit missionaries by South Indian temple muralists. During the 1700s, missionaries commissioned sets of paintings from which they learned about the gods and literary figures popular among the people of the region.

Inscriptions

Inscription

[[upper center, in French]] Sougrihoad

Inscription Translation

Sugriva

Inscription Remark

For a similar work in context, see Gérard Colas, Usha Colas-Chauhan, and Francis Richard, "Text and Paintings: A Preliminary Study of Indien 745, a Manuscript of the Bibliothèque nationale de France," in Cracow Indological Studies, vol. XXIV, no. 2 (2022), pp. 25-58.

Inscription

[[lower center, in Telegu]] sugrihuṃḍu

Inscription Translation

Sugriva

Provenance
(R. E. Lewis, Inc., San Francisco, CA)
?–1975
William E. Ward [1922–2004] and Ellen Svec Ward [1921–1989], Solon, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1975–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1975.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 2 (1976): 31–71. Mentioned: p. 71, no. 184 www.jstor.org
Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Oriental Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1986. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 102, p. 248
Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1975. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 3-March 7, 1976).

Imagining Rama's Journey (Indian Painting rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-September 17, 2023).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.73