Paire de gouache sur papier Inde ou Rajhastan

East India, Patna or Murshidabad, circa 1830 Two gouaches on mica, depicting a Muharram procession and a view of the great bull in the temple of Tanjore. Condition: good. framed under glass 20 x 15 cm Provenance: Galerie Joseph Soustiel, Art musulman, Paris. This technique of painting with gouache or watercolor on thin slabs of mica, a transparent mineral, developed in the early 19th century, partly in the Madras region and partly in North India, in Murshidabad, Benares, Patna and Lucknow. The fragility of this medium means that preserved works are rare. The Brihadishvara temple in southern India is home to a colossal statue of Nandi, Shiva's bull-mount, carved from a single block of black granite, six meters long and almost four meters high, which appears to be made of metal, so polished is its skin by the daily libations of the faithful. Muharram, the first month of the Muslim calendar, is a month of mourning, observed in particular by Shiites the world over. It gives rise to commemorations and processions in memory of the battle of Karbala (680 AD), as in the present painting. Two paintings on mica depicting the great stone bull in Tanjore and a Muharram procession, Eastern India, Murshidabad or Patna, circa 1830