A LADY PLAYING A TAMBURA ON A TERRACE
Possibly Bundi, Rajasthan, North-Western India, late 18th - early 19th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition portraying a lady seated on a terrace of a palatial compound at night, playing a tambura, a long, stringed instrument with a gourd resonator providing a drone pitch, typical of Hindustani classical music, and smoking a huqqa, her brightly coloured long lehenga dress standing out against the dark background of the night scene, set within black and white rules, and bright red borders, mounted, glazed and framed, 33.5cm x 27cm including the frame.

Provenance: purchased at Maggs Brothers Ltd. in 1979 and in a London private collection since.