Origin of Kishangarh Paintings

Origin of Kishangarh Paintings: This school of painting developed in Kishangarh, a town in Rajasthan about 27 kms from Ajmer. Raja Sawant Singh, the king of Kishangarh, was a great patron of the arts. He was himself a painter and poet and wrote verses under the pseudonym of Nagari Das. He was greatly in love with his mistress, a singer-poet in his court named Bani Thani. She was a quintessential Indian beauty and is acknowledged to have inspired the way Radha (Krishna’s consort) is depicted in the Kishangarh School of painting.
Nihal Chand, a talented artist in the king’s court, developed this style and is known to have painted some of the finest examples of Kishangarh School. The rulers of Jaipur shared social and political relations with the Mughals. This resulted in a distinct Mughal influence on much of Rajasthani art. However, the Bani Thani style of Kishangarh is widely acknowledged as being quite unique and in a class of its own.