Page 106 - Indian, Himalaya and Asian Art Bonhams Setp 2015

101
A ZENANA SCENE
Lucknow, late 18th century
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; under a moonlit sky, ladies of the harem encircling a
young prince, enjoy royal pleasures on the pavilion with gold openwork railings.
Image: 8 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. (21 x 14 cm) Folio: 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. (44.5 x 29.3 cm)
$10,000 - 15,000
The present page compares favorably with a scene, ‘Celebrating with Fireworks’, in the San
Diego Museum of Art (1990:374), and another sold at Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2012,
lot 1172. The faces, proportions, and clothing are almost identical, which suggests they may
be from the same atelier.
It would seem likely that the artists responsible for these pages were among the exodus from
Delhi to Oudh (Lucknow) in around 1775. For further discussion on the artists and their new
European patrons, see Falk & Archer, Indian Miniatures, 1981, p. 136, and Markel & Gude,
India’s fabled city, Los Angeles, 2010, p. 171-5.
Provenance
Private Collection, Oregon

104 | BONHAMS