Gunakali Ragini

Illustration to a Ragamala series
By a Mughal artist, circa 1750-60

Opaque watercolour heightened with gold, in an album page with swirling floral tendrils, a Persian mid-nineteenth century seal impression at lower left reading 'His [God's] servant, Husayn'Ali

27.5 by 21 cm., 10¾ by 8¼ in. page; 11.8 by 7.8 cm., 4 5/8 by 3 in. miniature

A lady sits on the end of her bed attended by her maid who hands her flowers from the two large gold vessels situated behind them. The subject is echoed in the corresponding painting in a later ragamala set in the Bibliothèque National, Paris (A la cour du Grand Mogol, Paris, 1986, no. 150.22), as also in other provincial Mughal sets at Lucknow (Waldschmidt, E. and R.L., Miniatures of Musical Inspiration in the Collection of the Berlin Museum of Indian Art, part 1, Wiesbaden, 1967, figs. III and 87), where a more detailed garden is added to the background.

Provenance

Nineteenth century private collection, France