id: 155843 accession number: 1991.148 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1991.148 updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:11.070000 Kuvera, King of the Yakshas, before 1947. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (Sri Lankan, 1877–1947). Ink on paper; The Cleveland Museum of Art, In memory of Evelyn Svec Ward, gift of her husband, William E. Ward 1991.148 title: Kuvera, King of the Yakshas title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: before 1947 creation date earliest: 1907 creation date latest: 1947 current location: creditline: In memory of Evelyn Svec Ward, gift of her husband, William E. Ward copyright: --- culture: Ceylon technique: Ink on paper department: Drawings collection: DR - Misc. Countries type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (Sri Lankan, 1877–1947) - artist Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (Sri Lankan, 1877–1947)

Ananda Coomaraswamy was best known as a scholar and curator of Indian art. Following his studies at the University of London, he returned to Southeast Asia to head the Mineralogical Survey of Ceylon. He became fascinated with the traditional and ancient arts of his country and soon devoted himself to their study, publishing numerous books and articles over a long and distinguished career.

During the early 1920s Coomaraswamy became the first curator of Indian art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he assembled the first public collection of Indian art in the United States. He also was responsible for acquiring work by Alfred Stieglitz, whom he persuaded in 1924 to donate a group of 27 photographs. With this gift, the Museum of Fine Arts became one of the first major museums to include photography in its permanent collection.

Coomaraswamy was a photographer himself, documenting many works of Indian art. From around 1918 through the early 1930s, he took numerous landscape photographs, as well as many pictures of dancer Stella Bloch, whom he married in 1922. He exhibited his images in photographic salons in Toronto, as well as in Buffalo and Pittsburgh, and took part in the Third Annual International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1924.

Coomaraswamy was a member of the Pictorial Photographers of America, and in April 1925 presented a lecture on art and photography at the Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York. M.M. --- measurements: state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Signs of Affection: Gifts Honoring the Museum's 75th Anniversary opening date: 1992-10-27T05:00:00 Signs of Affection: Gifts Honoring the Museum's 75th Anniversary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27, 1992-January 3, 1993). title: Indian Gallery 242 Rotation – April-November 2017 opening date: 2017-04-10T04:00:00 Indian Gallery 242 Rotation – April-November 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 10-November 6, 2017). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE William E. Ward [1922-2004], Solon, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: ?-1991 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1991- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES