THE NIGHT’S REST
Provincial Mughal School, Deccan, Central India, 18th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on wove paper, the vertical composition depicting a night scene with a heavily bejewelled courtly couple dressed in princely garb taking a rest under a tree after a long journey, the male subject holding his head up with his eyes closed, his right hand clenching an encrusted tulwar sword, his female companion wide awake and portrayed in a puzzled state indicated by her finger next to her lips, a typical Persian topos, the crescent moon on the upper left corner the only source of light present in the scene, the hilly landscape in line with 18th-century Deccani paintings, mounted onto a later gilt cardboard frame, 22cm x 16cm excluding the mount.