A FEMALE DEVOTEE MAKING AN OFFERING
Possibly Awadh (Oudh), Northern India, ca. 1760 - 1780

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical-format standing portrait depicting a bare-chested, heavily bejewelled courtly maiden wrapped in her diaphanous red shawl standing in front of a shrine with a sapling, holding a golden tray filled with rounded treats, possibly laddoos, in a stance typical for Hindu devotees when performing ritual offerings (prasad), pasted onto a later card album border, set within concentric black, gold, blue and red rules, and blue, red and cream borders illuminated with vegetal scrollwork, rosettes, and foliage, the portrait 15.4cm x 10.8cm, 33.3cm x 27cm including the later borders.