JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, LATE 18TH CENTURY

This painting relates to a small group in the Chester Beatty Library (Linda York Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, vol. II, Dublin, 1995, nos.7.86-7.88, pp.752-55). Leach writes that the Chester Beatty paintings, which all depict imaginary incidents in Indian cities, give a ‘whimsical, highly amusing, but not altogether flattering’ view of the late eighteenth century British presence in North India as seen through Indian eyes. As Western prints of European cities reached India and impressed local artists, they borrowed the genre of leisurely city-dwellers promenading, boating and enjoying life against a backdrop of elegant buildings. Here the figures pick flowers in a walled garden, with a picturesque lake behind. Leach mentions that the perspectives along spectacular vistas in these European prints also moved Indian artists who often exaggerated receding diagonals in their work, as here (Leach, op.cit., p.752). Another painting of similar style sold in these Rooms, 7 April 2011, lot 278.