The collecting and study of Indian painting have been central to Ludwig Habighorst’s life. A chance encounter with Indian miniatures nearly fifty years ago ignited this lifelong passion. For Habighorst, a professor of Radiology, collecting has been a creative and sensual process where he has been guided by his eye and curiosity rather than by a purely academic focus. Hence his partiality for Pahari painting and his particular interest in the visual expression of human nature with its many vicissitudes.
The collection is multifaceted. There are masterpieces and rare treasures such as the two Bilaspur Bhagavata Purana folios and the Guler portrait of Raja Dalip Singh attributed to Pandit Seu. Other paintings are compelling for their insight into the human psyche, such as the effects of drugs, the madness of love or the wrath of the gods. The characters of the ‘Small Mankot’ Ramayana are likewise imbued with human emotion.