A PORTRAIT OF A LADY
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE SCOTTISH ESTATE
Kishangarh, Rajasthan, North-Western India, late 19th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition depicting a bejewelled courtly lady en déshabillée after her beauty rituals, checking her image in a small standing mirror placed to her right, her cleavage, ears, wrists, and ankles filled with typical gold and encrusted Indian jewels, the back plain except for an inventory number '104' written twice at the top, 30cm x 21.5cm.

The present lot can be conceived as an idealised portrait of a courtly lady. The sharp profile featuring a slightly pointy nose, exaggeratedly arched eyebrows, and elongated 'fish eye', and the subject itself, a romanticised portrait of a beautiful maiden, are both typical trademarks of Kishangarh school productions, highly influenced by classical Mughal ateliers. The pose of our sitter is also quite typical of this school, as evident in another lot attributed to Kishangarh and sold at Christie's South Kensington, 11 October 2013, lot 545. For two other similar Kishangarh portraits, please see Sotheby's London, 23 October 2019, lot 182; and Roseberys, 22 October 2019, lot 385.