Purkhu of Kangra

Around 1800, in the small Himalayan kingdom of Kangra in northern India, the court painter Purkhu filled his pictures with crowds. Where many painters of the hills kept to a few figures, he liked wide scenes packed with courtiers, musicians and guests, and he seems to have run the royal workshop that turned them out.

His patron was Sansar Chand, the ruler of Kangra, whose public and private life Purkhu recorded again and again, from formal audiences to quieter domestic moments. Beside these court scenes he illustrated long religious series, including episodes from the life of the god Krishna, in the flowing, lyrical Kangra manner the kingdom is remembered for.

We know his work far better than his life. His exact dates are not recorded, and he is placed only by the years he was active, roughly 1780 to 1820, and by the paintings signed to his hand or his workshop that now sit in collections from Delhi to New York.