LADIES IN CONVERSATION IN A GARDEN
Possibly Provincial Mughal School or Kotah, Rajasthan, North-Western India, early 19th century

Opaque pigments heightened in gold on paper, the vertical composition depicting a beloved and recurrent topos in the pictorial arts of India, three courtly ladies drinking wine, eating ripe fruits and conversing on a terrace in a lush blossoming garden, each one wearing a colourful skirt and a diaphanous top (ghagra choli) in line with North-Western Indian fashion canons, two women wearing tall conical hats, each one wearing multiple strings of pearls and rubies necklaces, and thick gold bangles, the jewellery and their accessories indicative of a high-class status, a quadripartite garden in the foreground and thick vegetation in line with Kotah paintings in the background, mounted, glazed and framed, the folio 22cm x 15.8cm, 41cm x 33cm including the frame.