Kolhapur Palace collections, the Town Hall Museum in Kolhapur, Maharashtra.
This artwork, called The Horse, is an extraordinary watercolor on paper created by an outstanding master Abalal Rahiman. The master depicted this picture in a particular style known as European naturalism, which was popular due to him. We can see a magnificent brown horse in the picture, which is dressed in a full set of riding harness. The horseman’s figure can also be seen in the picture, looking after the horse, putting it on. Rahiman demonstrated his outstanding knowledge of anatomy, as he painted the horse’s body, emphasizing the beautiful lines and muscular legs. The master also showed his skills in the academic art of drawing. Meanwhile, to the left of the horse, we can see a man, dressing in the traditional Maharashtrian costume, wearing a bright red pheta, a white dhoti, and a dark vest. Rahiman proved his brilliance in painting by showcasing superb skills in creating shadows and highlights. The master used light and soft colors of earth tones to depict the ground and the horse’s body. He also used pinkish colors to show the reflections of sunlight. Rahiman managed to create an illusion of sunlight coming from the background, a blurred tree.
The Horse painting was created at the end of the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century (1890-1920). It was during his period of high creativity, when Rahiman was the court painter of Kolhapur State, invited by Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj. After the Maharajah passed away in 1922, Rahiman committed his most beloved paintings to the Panchaganga River, having dipped them in the river. However, some of Rahiman’s masterpieces, including his wonderful naturalistic watercolor landscapes and portraits of local life, have been preserved.
The Horse by Rahiman is a simple but powerful folk painting. It is not a royal court painting full of gold and jewels. It is a village painting, made for ordinary people to understand a big truth through a small story.
In the painting, a horse stands in the centre. It is strong, proud, and restless. Its eyes are wide, its legs are ready to run, and its mane flies in the wind. Around it, there is open land, a few trees, and a distant sky. Rahiman does not paint the horse only as an animal. For him, the horse is a symbol of the human mind - fast, wild, and hard to control.
The colour work is plain but emotional. Brown, black, and earth colours dominate. The background is calm, which makes the horse look more alive and energetic. The lines are bold, not perfect, which gives it a folk feeling.
The weakness of the painting is its simplicity. There is no detailed background, no other characters, no story in the frame. But that is also its strength. It forces the viewer to focus only on the horse.
In folklore research, this painting is important because it shows how common people in India saw power, freedom, and desire - all in one animal.
