MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1740

A similar scene to the present painting is housed in the San Diego Museum (acc.no.1990.374, illustrated in Barbara Schmidz (ed.), After the Great Mughals: Painting in Dehli and the Regional Courts in the 18th and 19th centuries, Mumbai, 2002, no. 6, p.19), and another was sold in these Rooms, 25 May 2017, lot 102. Our painting is probably of the same period which coincides with the reign of Muhammad Shah (r.1719-48), when depicting harem scenes such as this was especially popular. The scene is likely to depict either the festival of Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, or the Muslim festival of Shab-bara’at, which is held on the eve of the fourteenth day of the month of Sha'ban. A similar painting described as representing Shab-bara’at, and also Mughal, circa 1740, is in the British Library (Toby Falk and Mildred Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library, London, 1981, no.171, p.110).