A Courtesan Holding a Small Cup, North India / Mughal, 18th century

Francesca Galloway, London, 1999.

This refined Mughal portrait depicts a courtesan in three-quarter profile - her gaze directed calmly towards the left - at something beyond the picture plane. She holds a small stemmed cup delicately between her fingers - a well-established motif in Mughal and Deccani court painting that befits her beauty, elegance and refinement. A curious white "duckling" in her left hand.

Our courtesan is adorned with layered pearl necklaces, jeweled earrings and bangles and is barely dressed in a diaphanous white dupatta with an orange scarf and and multilayered olive necklace garland. Her dark hair is swept back under a sheer veil edged in gold with a jeweled forehead ornament. The pale blue ground, a characteristic of a later Mughal workshop, lends the composition a luminous, thoughtful aspect.

The excellent quality of the present portrait, with its gold highlights and confident draughtsmanship - its fine facial profile and delicate depiction of textile patterns all point to production within, or closely related to, an imperial Mughal workshop during the eighteenth century.

On the reverse side there is a partially crossed-out ink inscription in Devanagari script. It reads like a devotional invocation, which begins with "ॐ श्री गणेशाय नम" (Om Shri Ganeshaya Namah), a traditional Hindu prayer to Lord Ganesha.

With additional identification marks:

चित्रसंख्या ३४ (Chitrasankhya 34) ie "image number 34" likely an inventory number.

Also the number २६ (26) appears at the top - likely a folio number.

For reference see:

Christie's London, 10th October 1989, lot 89 and Replica Shoes 's London, 8th May 1997, lot 129.