This painting presents Krishna and Radha in a Mughal-style palace pavilion enjoying a feast and night fireworks. In addition to the sparklers in the foreground, the numerous flames along the roofline and those outlining the five palaces rising out of the lake in the background suggest that the scene is taking place during the popular Dipwali Festival of Lights. A song verse inscribed on the back of the painting describes the feast and the participants, but fails to mention the reason for the festivities (see Appendix).
The chronology of Kishangarh painting is controversial, but it is generally considered to have begun by about 1700 with an emphasis on secular portraits. The production of the atelier flourished between about 1735 and about 1770, during which time images of Radha and Krishna were the favorite theme. The leading artist of Kishangarh, Nihal Chand, is known from inscriptional and archival evidence to have worked from at least 1757 to 1773. His son, Sitaram, continued to paint in his father's dramatically stylized manner (see Leach, pp. 185-88, no. 71). A less inspired, stereotyped version of Nihal Chand's style was continued into the early nineteenth century by the succeeding artists, of the Kishangarh workshop. The shorter figures, schematic landscape, and awkward treatment of the architecture in this painting suggest a date of execution during this late phase.
Writer Name:- Pratapaditya Pal