A NAYIKA RETURNING TO HER QUARTERS LATE AT NIGHT
Kangra, Pahari Hills, Northern India, second half 19th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical-format composition depicting a starry night scene in a palatial courtyard with a pink-clad courtly maiden wrapped in a golden shawl being escorted back to her quarters by her sakhi (confidante), another female attendant waiting for them with a torch at the other end of the courtyard by a door with rolled-down curtain, drawing emphasis on the time of the night when the sky is most dark, Krishna witnessing the scene from a window on the upper right corner, set within concentric Kangra-style decorative borders with two-tone floral sprays on black ground and bright red ground, mounted, glazed and framed, the folio 19.3cm x 16cm, 33cm x 28.5cm including the frame.