A PORTRAIT OF AN INDIAN MAIDEN WEARING A DUTCH BONNET
Kotah or Bundi, Rajasthan, North-Western India, late 18th - early 19th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on wove paper, the vertical composition portraying an Indian maiden drinking from a small wine cup resting against a large red bolster, dressed in typical attire with a gold-embroidered green kurta over an ochre yellow lehenga, wearing several strings of pearls around her neck and chest, amongst the most noticeable foreign elements the blue cape and caparisoned orange bonnet with an unusual pointy shape (possibly a Dutch bonnet) add a Western look to the portrait, set within black and white rules, and bright red borders, mounted on a white cardboard frame, the folio 30cm x 20.5cm, 45.5cm x 35.5cm including the mount.

The physiognomy and outfit of this maiden betray an Indian origin, as does the painting style with large broad almond-shaped eyes and the disproportion in the size of the head versus the body, a feature quite recurrent in Bundi and Kotah paintings. However, the pointy cap she is wearing is clearly foreign and it resembles Dutch ladies' bonnets.

It is worth mentioning that the Dutch presence was strongly felt in the Indian Subcontinent between 1605 and 1825, when the Dutch East India Company was established. Trade and exchanges between the Dutch and the Indian locals flourished in this period. However, in the second half of the 18th century, the Dutch started losing their influence and by the middle of 1825, they had lost their last trading posts in India, which had been progressively absorbed by and divided between the French and British powers in the Subcontinent. It is therefore plausible to suggest that this painting was produced before 1825, when elements of Dutch fashion and lifestyle were still en vogue in India.