Painting thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Painting

first half of the eighteenth century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Painting in opaque watercolour on paper, a head and shoulders profile of a lady looking to the right and holding a white flower bud. She is shown against a blue oval background surrounded by a plain crimson frame. She wears a transparent odhani over her head and shoulders. It has a polka-dot pattern of stylised red quatrefoils with golden borders. She wears pearls with a red gem on her forehead, a pearl earring with a green gemstone drop and a matching green drop under a faceted crimson gem attached to her clothes on her chest. She also has two rows of pearls at her throat and two longer rows falling down below. Her nails and finger tips are coloured red. There is little modelling to the face.
The painting is framed in green paper strips decorated with a gold design of stylised lotus buds set within white, gold and black outlines. The border design of red poppies and pink lilies with gold outlines and detailing are set on an ivory-coloured ground. The page has buff-coloured strips of paper with a white line along the inner edge along its margins, and a further beige-coloured strip of paper stuck along the right hand edge as a gutter for the binding of the album.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Painted in opaque watercolour on paper
Brief description
Painting, Small Clive Album p. 26, lady holding flower, opaque watercolour on paper, Mughal, 18th century
Physical description
Painting in opaque watercolour on paper, a head and shoulders profile of a lady looking to the right and holding a white flower bud. She is shown against a blue oval background surrounded by a plain crimson frame. She wears a transparent odhani over her head and shoulders. It has a polka-dot pattern of stylised red quatrefoils with golden borders. She wears pearls with a red gem on her forehead, a pearl earring with a green gemstone drop and a matching green drop under a faceted crimson gem attached to her clothes on her chest. She also has two rows of pearls at her throat and two longer rows falling down below. Her nails and finger tips are coloured red. There is little modelling to the face.
The painting is framed in green paper strips decorated with a gold design of stylised lotus buds set within white, gold and black outlines. The border design of red poppies and pink lilies with gold outlines and detailing are set on an ivory-coloured ground. The page has buff-coloured strips of paper with a white line along the inner edge along its margins, and a further beige-coloured strip of paper stuck along the right hand edge as a gutter for the binding of the album.
Dimensions
  • Central painting height: 13.2cm
  • Central painting width: 9.5cm
  • Page height: 35.5cm
  • Page width: 23.5cm
Style
Credit line
Gift of Mr. John Goelet
Object history
This miniature painting is part of the Small Clive Album of Indian miniatures which is thought to have been given by Shuja ud-Daula, the Nawab of Avadh, to Lord Clive during his last visit to India in 1765-67. It contains 62 leaves on which are Mughal miniature paintings, drawing and flower studies on both sides. The binding is covered with an Indian brocade silk that may have been cut from lengths brought home by the 2nd Lord Clive, who served as Governor of Madras, 1799 to 1803. The album was sold from Powis Castle at Sotheby's sale, 16 to 18 January 1956, lot 332A.
Production
made probably in the second quarter of the 18th century, possibly in Avadh
Subject depicted
Collection
Accession number
IS.48:26-1956

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Record createdNovember 13, 2003
Record URL
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