Govardhan

Govardhan (flourished 17th century, India) was a noted Mughal painter born into imperial service. He was the son of a Hindu painter, Bhavani Das. His work spanned the reigns of the emperors Akbar, Jahāngīr, and Shah Jahān. Several examples of his work have survived, and they are sufficient to establish him as a painter of great ability, fond of rich, sensuous colour and softly modeled forms. Govardhan was one of the illustrators of the Bābur-nāmeh (“Memoirs of Bābur"; in the British Museum) and the artist of the “Assembly of Gulāb-pāshī [Rosewater Sprinkler]” (dated 1615; in the Reza Library, Rampur, India). Fine portraits by him are in the Jahāngīr albums now in the collections of various American and European museums. Few Mughal painters depicted with such insight the many human types found in India.