Indian Drawings

This Mughal miniature was painted at one of the princely courts of India. It depicts a raven-haired princess in a gold-trimmed saffron-colored silk sari. Under a glowering evening sky she dawdles on a white marble terrace, with a pet fawn on a leash, before a landscape dotted with buildings nestled amongst trees beyond a river. Her hair, falling loosely about her shoulders, rather than carefully dressed on her head, indicates that she is a maiden. The overall mood is one of expectancy. Perhaps walking a pet and catching an evening breeze is a pretext to escape palace scrutiny for a lovers’ assignation. In Mughal India tender sentiments were a bridge to the erotic – and if this seems contradictory, so too is the balance of realism and caricature, and naturalism with the schematic. Both are hallmarks of miniatures painted in this place and time. The earliest Mughal Indian miniatures date to the 16th century. They were inspired by those painted at the refined Moslem courts of the neighboring Persian empire. They incorporated figures in spite of the Moslem faith’s proscription against depicting the human form. Such was the nature of sophisticated courtly life everywhere that beauty and pleasure trumped systems of morality. This was no less the case at the provincial Indian courts, where our miniature, marked by a charming pictorial naiveté, was most likely painted. Yet the artist was undeniably accomplished. His command of perspective, introduced by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century, is seen in the landscape, which rolls back to a distant horizon, contrary to the flat two-dimensional ones following Indian-painting traditions. And if Mughal artists were influenced by Western art, the compliment was returned by Rembrandt and Sir Joshua Reynolds, among others, who collected Indian miniatures (as did, perhaps, Giovanni Bellini who painted in Mughal style the famous miniature of a Persian man...

Delhi: Stones And Streets by C.S.H. Jhabvala. Published by Ravi Dayal, Delhi, 1990. 2nd Ed Signed hardcover with dust jacket. Professor Cyrus S.H. Jhabvala was a prominent Indian arc...

1970s Indian set of three colorful drawing representing the kings royal court. Part of a large private collection.

A fine antique Indian or Indo-Persia Moghul Islamic Illustrated manuscript folio. Depicting monkeys gathering fruit at the base of the tree. ...

1970s Indian religious ink drawing. It is part of a private collection.

1970s Indian bonsai paper drawing.

A fine late 18th century, early 19th century watercolour of an Indian shrub with yellow flowers. By Janet Dick. A paper label on the reverse is inscribed ‘Drawn while the artist w...

1970s Indian paper drawing of a woman sitting in a palace room. Hand drawn in ochre Tones and belonging to a larger private collection.  

Three highly charismatic and personal portrait drawings if Indian gentlemen. Dating from the late 19th century and in original glass and oak frames they portray a Pathan hillman and ...

1970s Indian paper drawing of a palace, part of a large private collection.

1950s Indian Mughal gouache colorful paper drawing of a hunting party on an antique court fee stamp official paper of the state of Jaipur. Part of a l...

1900s Indian portrait on paper of man with turban. Part of a private collection.

1970s Indian paper drawing of a Hindu man with a spear, part of a private collection.

1970s Indian paper drawing of a goat, part of a large private collection. Dimensions with frame: 35 x 26 cm.

1970s Indian pair of paper drawings depicting hunting and music scenes. They are part of a private collection. Dimensions correspond to each drawing.

1950s Indian colourful drawing of a Royal with horse. It is part of a private collection.

1970s Indian Mughal gouache paper drawing depicting military horsemen. Part of a larger private collection.