A COURTLY LADY PINING OVER HER LOVER WHILST THE MONSOON STORM APPROACHES
Pahari School, Northern India, 19th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition portraying a courtly lady pining over her distant lover, on a courtly balcony followed by two attendants chatting behind her, in the distance lightning strikes and a flock of birds flying away due to the monsonic storm approaching, possibly a pictorial reflection of her heartache, the composition set within a black border with a fine white ruling and a second large red-speckled pink border, on the verso various inscriptions on later accounting wanli paper, to the cover two lines of black ink Devanagari script, 20.2cm x 26.7cm.