Page 76 - Indian and Himalayan Art Mar 21, 2018 NYC

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF STAFFORD ELIAS

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A LADY PREPARING FOR THE BEDCHAMBER other hand being massaged. But the artist has taken great care that neither
MUGHAL SCHOOL, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1730-40 attendant obscures the central fgure as she exchanges a knowing look with
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, laid down with illuminated
border, the reverse with ownership seals, mounted, framed and glazed one of her attendants. One wonders whether this is the preamble before
Painting 6 x 9º in. (15.3 x 23.5 cm.) Chitarman’s famous depiction of Muhammad Shah making love, now in the
folio 11¬ x 16 in. (29.5 x 40.5 cm.) British Library (Barbara Schmitz (ed.), After the Great Mughals, Painting in
Delhi and the Regional Courts in the 18th and 19th centuries, Mumbai, 2002,
$10,000-15,000 pl.7, p.21).
This intimate depiction is rendered on a far larger scale than is normally The seal on the reverse is struck twice, once over-inked, the other time under-
encountered in Mughal panton. It is very clear that the central fgure is inked. What can be read reads ……tf Quli Khan Bahadur and the date [11]13, or
being prepared for the bedchamber, being ofered a small cup of wine, her [1]13[0] which equate to 1701-2 AD or 1717-18 AD.

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