5.

Lady listening to music

Mughal, 1730-40

Opaque pigments and gold and silver on paper, laid down in an album page with pink borders, and on the reverse a stylised iris arrangement with bees, a jackal and a cock

23 by 16.5cm,; 9 by 6 ½ in. painting; 30 by 21cm.; 11 4/5 by 8 ¼ in. folio

 

Inscriptions

Inscribed above in Persian with the fanciful description:

padshahzadi-ye dara shikuh

“Royal daughter (padshahzadi) of Dara Shikuh” and numbered 57

Inscribed on the reverse in Urdu:

kali sosan

“black iris”and numbered 58

 

Provenance

Album put together in Lucknow in the 1780s

Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), Ms. 26074

Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Phillippica, London, part IV, 26th November 1968, lot 332 (unillustrated)

Collection of Francoise and Claude Bourelier, Paris, 1970s-2014