PROBABLY FAIZABAD OR AWADH, INDIA, CIRCA 1780

The composition of this scene relates to a painting of Colonel Polier watching a Nautch attributed to Mihr Chand, Faizabad, circa 1773-74, (India’s Fabled City, The Art of Courtly Lucknow, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles, 2010, fig.26, p.180). The rounded outlines of the facial features with their soft outlines and restrained colour palette is also similar to a portrait of Gurgin Khan smoking a waterpipe attributed to Dip Chand at Murshidabad in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. D.1180-1903, Arts of Bengal, Exhibition Catalogue, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1979, no. 87, p.48). A scene of very similar composition with a prince on the left watching musicians on the right and water in the middle ground was sold in these Rooms, 10 June 2015, lot 42.