NORTH INDIA, PUNJAB HILLS, GULER, CIRCA 1760-1770

A lady is seated outside a white pavilion on a moonlit terrace accompanied by her attendants. She gazes at the moon, deep in thoughts of her lover, oblivious to the wine cup being offered to her. This painting is closely related to eighteenth century Mughal terrace scenes which usually depict women of the court engaged in leisurely activities accompanied by musicians and female attendants. It also finds comparison with two other terrace scenes from Guler dating from the same period, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (acc. nos. I.S.133-1949, I.M.72-1912), illustrated by W.G. Archer in Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, 1973, Vol.I, Guler, p.155, 31, 32 (i), and illustrated in Vol.II, p.106.
The treatment of the landscape and the introduction of aerial perspective, as seen in the background, was a relatively new development in Pahari painting of this period which followed Nainsukh’s travels to the plains and to eastern India. The landscape in the present painting is comparable to another Guler painting dated circa 1760 with a lady smoking a huqqa on a terrace, illustrated by W.G. Archer, op. cit., Vol.I, Guler p.157, 40, and illustrated in Vol.II, p.110.