Krishna’s longing for Radha, from a Gita Govinda (Song of the Cowherd) of Jayadeva (c. 1820–25): Art, History and Details

Krishna’s longing for Radha, from a Gita Govinda (Song of the Cowherd) of Jayadeva (c. 1820–25) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In the lush forests on the banks of India’s Yamuna River, the youthful god Krishna waits to rendezvous with his beloved Radha. The artist has rendered his impatience by showing seven Krishnas, in various attitudes of anxious waiting, as though seeing him over a period of time. Meanwhile Radha, dressed in yellow at top right, confers seemingly endlessly with her confidante, as she tries to decide whether she should meet Krishna for the illicit tryst—she is already married and Krishna is prone to flirting with other girls. This scene is a metaphor for how god waits for us to come to him, while the human devotee frets about the bonds of social norms.

Object facts

• Title: Krishna’s longing for Radha, from a Gita Govinda (Song of the Cowherd) of Jayadeva
• Date: c. 1820–25
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 24.1 x 32.4 cm (9 1/2 x 12 3/4 in.); with mat: 40.6 x 53.2 cm (16 x 20 15/16 in.); with borders: 25.6 x 33.8 cm (10 1/16 x 13 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1989.333

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990.
• Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華: 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.