A PORTRAIT OF AN INDIAN LADY HOLDING A SEED
Bikaner, Rajasthan, North-Western India, late 18th - 19th century

A PORTRAIT OF AN INDIAN LADY HOLDING A SEED
Bikaner, Rajasthan, North-Western India, late 18th - 19th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on wove paper, the vertical composition portraying a typical Rajasthani Indian maiden wearing ochre yellow ghagra choli (top and skirt) with a diaphanous gold-embroidered white dupatta (shawl) around her shoulders and over her head, several strings of pearl necklaces, heavy pearl nose ring and earrings and a beautiful forehead ornament with a central red stone, possibly a ruby or spinel, the red-dyed fingers of her right hand holding onto a small seed, her gaze lost in the horizon, set against an acid green background within dark blue borders, mounted on a white cardboard frame, 39.5cm x 33cm including the mount.

An almost identical Indian maiden, wearing the same attire and adornments, is depicted in a Bikaner painting of Krishna and Radha, attributed to Nur al-Din and dating ca. 1675 in the Harvard Art Museums / Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of John Kenneth Galbraith, inv. no. 1972.356. It is very likely that our painting was produced in the same regional school and was meant to portray Radha, Krishna's beloved.

Dimensions: 39.5cm x 33cm including the mount