Princely pleasures in a garden

• Accession Number:AKM174
• Place:India, Bundi
• Dimensions:45.8 cm × 34.4 cm
• Date:ca. 1760
• Materials and Technique:opaque watercolour on paper

• While the intended subject of this painting may have been the princely figure listening to music in the bottom left corner, the lively depictions of animals here steal the show. In the centre of the painting, a luxuriously caparisoned camel drinks from a well; three women on a pedestal in the centre of the well attempt to attract his attention. Monkeys scamper in the palm trees behind, while water birds frame the scene at top and bottom. The painting does not appear to illustrate any known story, and may have been intended as a stand-alone work.
  
  It was mostly likely made in Bundi, a court in Rajasthan, in northern India. Characteristic of paintings from this court, the figures have round faces and pointed noses, and appear within a lush natural setting rendered in a vibrant palette.

   

  — Marika Sardar

References
Canby, Sheila R. Princes, Poets & Paladins: Islamic and Indian Paintings from the Collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan. London: British Museum Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780714114835
Bautze, Joachim, ‘Painting styles of Bundi, Kotah and related schools, 16th–19th centuries,’ “Indian Sub-continent,” VI, 4 (iii) (c), The Dictionary of Art, Vol. 15, ed. J.S. Turner. New York: Grove’s Dictionaries, 1996, 603–8. ISBN: 9781884446009