
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in



A princess viewing a painitng Mughal, circa 1630
Sold for US$27,500 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot


Client Services (New York)
A princess viewing a painitng
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; seated on a golden European chair and purple bolster, the maiden views a miniature painting of another female figure. Her hair is draped with a gilt-hemmed scarf that falls across her bare breasts and down over her green churidar, and adorned with strands of pearls. Her face is sensitively drawn with a benign expression. Image: 3¾ x 6¾ in. (8.2 x 15.8 cm.)
Folio: 13 1/8 x 8 1/2 in. (33.2 x 21.6 cm.)
Footnotes
The reverse has fourteen lines of nastaliq script of unrelated poetry, likely mounted as a calligraphic specimen in the album format.
The work is signed in the lower margin 'amal-i Tulsi' a previoulsy unknown court artist active during reign of Shah Jahan. There are three painting in a Bustan of Sa'di album in the British Library (Add. 27262), whose colophon is dated November 1629. The paintings with comparable female figures are ff. 129a, 145a, and 168b. None of the paintings is ascribed or even attributed. See Losty, The Art of the Book in India, 1982, no. 79, for a full discussion of this manuscript.
We are grateful to Dr. John Seyller for his assistance in the research on this painting.
Provenance:
Esther Aronson Collection, New York














