Cleveland Museum of Art

Krishna Playing with the Gopis in the Yamuna

Date: c. 1770
Medium: gum tempera and gold on paper
Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 314369

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

After Krishna raised Mount Govardhan, he began to play erotically with the girls of his village. Under a scorching sun, Krishna and three milkmaids enjoy the cooling waters of the Yamuna River. The women neatly stack their clothes on a nearby tree, and Krishna’s crown and scarf rest by the bank. Krishna playfully splashes one of the women, and she turns her face away. This scene evokes the joy of spending life in intimacy with the god Krishna. Krishna playfully splashes one of the women who turns her face away.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Provenance: ?–July 1984: (Kundus, San Francisco, CA, sold to Ralph and Catherine Glynn Benkaim) | July 1984–2001: Ralph Benkaim [1914–2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA | 2001–2018: Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer, Beverly Hills, CA, partial sale and gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 2018–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH