Page 128 - Bonhams Indian and Himalayan Art March 2016 New York

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A LOVELORN LADY
Jodhpur, circa 1750-1770
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; verso with signatures of
Abdur Rahman Chughtai.
Image: 10 x 6 1/2 in. (25.4 x 16.5 cm)
$10,000 - 15,000

Reclining languidly on the zenana terrace against a large red bolster, This painting is a Jodhpur version of a glamorous European-influenced
an inconsolable semi-nude princess lets drop her garland of white Mughal theme: the reclining female nude. Compare to the two most
jasmine flowers that was meant to welcome her lover. Two maids try celebrated from the Cary Welch Collection (Sotheby’s London,
to comfort her. One offers wine from a Chinese porcelain cup. The 31 May 2011, lot 11) and the Bodleian Library (Topsfield, Paintings
other clasps her hennaed hand. Behind them the topiary captures the from Mughal India, Oxford, 2008, no. 56).
erotic tension with rounded mango crowns and pointed cypress trees,
underneath the swollen monsoon clouds. Provenance
Collection of Abdur Rahman Chughtai (1897-1975)
Private European Collection since 1988

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