FAIZABAD OR LUCKNOW, INDIA, CIRCA 1760-1780

Details

A COUPLE ENJOYING A TERRACE AMBIANCE AT NIGHT
FAIZABAD OR LUCKNOW, INDIA, CIRCA 1760-1780
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, a couple walks to their room in a walled garden, preceded by a servant maid holding a candle and followed by musicians, the scene moonlit, blossoming trees and cypresses rising in the background, a fountain in the foreground, laid down on card with cream borders with gilt arabesques, the reverse with inscriptions in black devanagari, in old velvet covered frame
Painting 10¾ x 8 7/8in. (27.3 x 22.7cm.); folio 12¼ x 10 3/8in. (31 x 26.2cm.)

Lot Essay

This painting and lot 118 have similar inscriptions on the reverse and identical gilt margins which indicate that they come from the same album.
The fine gray and white tones and delicate features of the figures in this painting seem to relate to a painting by Nidha Mal, now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and published in India's Fabled City, The Art of Courtly Lucknow, Los Angeles, 2011, cat.20, p.171. The painting is attributed to Awadh and dated to circa 1755-1765.

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