Watson Collection of Indian Miniatures at the Elvehjem Museum of Art

Madison, Wisc: Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, 2002. Softcover. VG+. Black & white & color illus. wraps. xi, 210 pp. 24 color plates, 129 bw illus. "The Watson collection of Indian art in the Elvehjem Museum of Art consists of miniature paintings that come from the foothills of the Himalayas to the tip of the Indian peninsula, including Orissa on the east coast and Gujarat on the west coast. It ranges in time from the thirteenth century to the nineteenth century. Thus it includes over half of the medieval period (ca. 750-1750) of Indic history. Various schools, each with its own distinctive style, developed within this time and space and can be classified roughly as traditional, Sultanate, Mughal, Rajput, Deccani, or South Indian. Collected by Jane Werner Watson, a connoisseur of Indian paintings, and her late husband Earnest C. Watson, this collection provides us with valuable examples of the South Asian manuscript illuminations and miniature paintings of seven centuries (1200-1900). This period in the history of South Asian painting is significant mainly because it witnessed the germination and blossoming of the world-renowned Mughal and Rajput styles." (p. 1).