A LADY BEING OFFERED PAAN
PROPERTY FROM A LONDON PRIVATE COLLECTION
Bikaner, Rajasthan, North-Western India, ca. 1760 - 1780

Opaque pigments, ink and gold on paper, the vertical composition depicting a melancholic lady seated against a large bolster in a white marble pavilion, behind her a standing attendant fanning her with a morchal (flywhisk made from peacocks' feathers), next to the lady's feet a brass spittoon and a tray with a cylindrical box, two bejewelled maidens approaching the pavilion carrying a lidded pandan box, one of them pointing at the lady, the latter offering paan (renowned for its stimulant and narcotic effects) to heal her melancholic and love-struck state, set within black and red rules, and gold-illuminated album borders with vegetal motifs, the reverse with four lines of black ink nasta'liq script quoting two poetic quatrains by Mawlana Hilali, the nome de plume of Mawlana Badr-al-Din Hilali Astarabadi Chagatai, an accomplished Persian poet of Turkish origin (1470 - 1529 or 1532), signed Shah Mahmoud in the lower left corner, set within black and white rules, and bright orange and dark blue borders, mounted, glazed and framed, the painting 25.8cm x 17cm, 43.3cm x 32.5cm including the frame.