JAIPUR, NORTH INDIA, LATE 18TH CENTURY

This painting closely relates to a group of three miniatures from a series depicting imaginary incidents in Indian cities which are 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.752-755). Leach writes that the Beatty paintings give a 'whimsical, highly amusing, but not altogether flattering' view of the late eighteenth century British presence in North India. As European prints of cities like Rome 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 we can see that the artist is trying to be faithful to the Roman cityscape, but in some ways making it more Indian, with minaret like towers and pietra dura decoration on the arched doorway of the impressive building to the left of the composition.