Large Colorful Indian Shrinathji Pichwai Painting

This painted-cloth hanging is a Pichwai (pichhwai) of Shrinathji, a devotional backdrop made for the Pushtimarg sect founded by Vallabhacharya, centered on the Shrinathji temple at Nathdwara, Rajasthan. The iconography, format, and border program point to a late 19th- to early 20th-century Nathdwara workshop example, likely depicting a Gau-Charan or Annakut/Gopashtami darshan.

Shrinathji stands under the haveli canopy, rendered in the characteristic blue black complexion of the seven-year-old Krishna, left arm raised to lift Mount Govardhan, right hand at the waist.  He is flanked by four smaller swaroops of Krishna, likely Navanitapriyaji, Mathuradhishji, Dwarkadhishji, and Vitthalnathji  members of the Nav Nidhi Swaroop group worshiped across Pushtimarg havelis.   Two mukhiyas (temple priests / tilkayat figures) in white jama robes perform seva — the left offering a thal of prasad, the right holding a chamar (fly whisk), a standard Pushtimarg ritual convention.

Below the deity sits a small Shri Yantra / Govardhan shila flanked by diminutive Krishna forms, with lotus offerings and a stepped singhasan pedestal. The golden pyramidal roof with flag (dhwaja) and kalash finial represents the Nathdwara haveli sanctum.

Side and top panels: grid of seated gopis, goswamis, and devotees in ecstatic devotion — closely related to the "24 Swaroop Darshan" and Chaurasi-Vaishnav format celebrating the bhaktas of the sect.

Inner red border: a frieze of white sheep/lambs (or cows) in procession — a nod to the Gau-Charan (cow-grazing) leela and the pastoral Braj setting essential to Shrinathji worship.

The top center cartouche has a small black svarupa of Krishna on a lotus leaf (Bala Krishna / Vatapatrashayi motif).
 
Size:  36 in (91.4cm) H. x 45 in (114cm) W.  in frame.  Losses to pigment.

Provenance: Ex David E private collection Long Island NY.