AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA SERIES: MALASRI RAGINI
Malwa, Madhya Pradesh, Central India, late 18th century

Opaque pigments and black ink on paper, the vertical composition depicting a dear topos of the Ragini (heroine) Malasri's Ragamala in a palace garden, plucking flowers from a tree, her melancholic expression, the dark stormy sky and a pair of white geese flying away together suggesting the heroine's feeling of longing for union with her beloved, the bowl in the other hand and some of her accessories likely to be later additions, set within black rules and washed red borders, a washed black ink numeral and Devanagari inscription at the top, the recto plain, mounted on a white cardboard frame, backed on a brown board with an inventory sticker from the Kasmin Gallery, 30cm x 22.8cm excluding the mount and board.

The scene of Malasri in the palace garden plucking petals from a lotus flower (or flowers in general) is a very common theme in the illustrations for this Ragamala. For an earlier though quite similar example, please see the Malasri Ragini illustration at the Freer Gallery, Washington D.C., USA (inv. no. F1924.7).