“In the context of traditional Indian art it is often said that tracking an artist is akin to keeping an eye on a platter of votive leaves you have released on the waters of a swift current. Yet the effort is worth making,” said B. N. Goswamy, one of India’s leading art historians. In this illustrated lecture, Goswamy discusses the work of the great eighteenth-century Indian painter Nainsukh and describes the long and complex paths he took to find his way to the artist.

Professor emeritus of art history at the Panjab University, Chandigarh, Goswamy has had a major impact on the field of Indian painting. The recipient of many honors, such as the Tagore National Fellowship for Cultural Research, he has taught worldwide, including at the Universities of Heidelberg, Zurich, Pennsylvania, Texas (at Austin), and California (at Berkeley.) The two-volume study which he coedited, Masters of Indian Painting: 1100-1900, introduced eponymous major exhibitions at the Rietberg Museum, Zurich and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including the classic studies Nainsukh of Guler and The Spirit of Indian Painting. His most recent work is on the painter Manaku of Guler.