Throughout his career Joseph Gott worked with terracotta; small models in which he experimented with imaginative designs prior to executing larger marble versions. The malleable material allowed Gott to treat his subjects with a sensitive suppleness and sense of movement, qualities which he often had difficultly in reproducing in the final marble.
The subject for the present model was taken from the contemporary fashionable orientalist romance Lalla Rookh of 1816 by Thomas Moore. Moore was a friend and biographer of Byron, and Gott's Hindu Girl is a unique and interesting illustration of a celebrated contemporary literary work in his oeuvre. The final marble of this subject was commissioned by Gott's patron Benjamin Rawson of Nidd Hall, Yorkshire, and was sold in these rooms, lot 282, 28 September 1989. There are some minor differences between the marble and the terracotta, above all a greater softness of treatment typical of terracotta.
Finally, it is interesting to note that the present terracotta is not a rough maquette, but a delicately finished model. The girl's physiognomy, fingers, plaits and drapery are all worked with fine precision, and this may indicate that this terracotta was produced not for the studio, but for a client. Gott certainly executed terracottas after the Antique on commission while he was in Rome, and the present terracotta may be related to this production.