Arts Focus: Ananda Coomaraswamy

On September 17, Sotheby's New York is due to hold an auction of modern and contemporary South Asian art, as well as six miniature paintings from the collection of Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947). Ananda Coomaraswamy was born in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) to a Tamil father and English mother; after the death of his father when he was only two years old, the young Coomaraswamy moved with his family to England, where he was educated. He studied geology and botany at university, and returned to his homeland between the years 1902-1906 in order to conduct research on Ceylonese mineralogy. During this period of time, an abiding interest in the arts was kindled. Coomaraswamy wrote a book on the premodern art of Sri Lanka, having been deeply influenced by the theories of William Morris, a leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement who valorized handicrafts above machine-made goods. In India, he associated with well-known intellectuals such as Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).

In 1917, Coomaraswamy came to the United States in order to serve as the first curator of Indian art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; he was in fact the first curator of Indian art in any museum in the U.S. He worked at the Museum of Fine Arts until his death in 1947. One area in which he specialized was the study of miniature paintings. For this reason, the sale of six paintings from his collection next week is a significant event.

One of Coomaraswamy's major contributions to the study of miniature painting was his research on Mughal and Rajput painting. The Muslim Mughals, originating from Central Asia, ruled over much of the Indian subcontinent between the 16th-18th centuries. The Hindu Rajputs ruled over the princely states of northwestern India. The paintings produced by Mughal court painters were influenced by Persian painting styles. Over time, the Persian painting styles had an impact on Rajput painting as well, reflecting the political alliances that developed between the Mughals and Rajputs.

The e-catalogue for the Sotheby's auction can be viewed here:
http://catalogue.sothebys.com/events/N08566

Unfortunately, the captions don't identify which paintings are from the Coomaraswamy collection, but the article below on the Sotheby's auction identifies one of them as a painting illustrating a jataka tale (a story of the Buddha's past lives) dating 1780-1790.

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=32819