19th Century Indian Watercolor of a Mughal Prince

A pair of 19th century Indian erotic gouaches depicting copulating couples engaging in different positions. The actions of the couples juxtaposed with the calm demeanor on their face...

19th century Indian erotic gouache depicting a couple copulating while standing on a carpet with a bolster behind. The actions of the couple juxtaposed with the calm demeanor on thei...

Very interesting drawing of two soldiers in uniform one most likely French holding a rifle with bayonet and the other, Swiss, dressed in a fancy red outfit with codpiece and odd hat holding a menacing looking mace. Behind them on either side are burning castles...

19th century miniature Swiss oil painting on tin depicting the Legend of William Tell. Showing William Tell on bent knee aiming the crossbow at hi...

Marble carving of the elephant headed four armed Hindu God Ganesha. With traces of old paint, it now has a rich honey patina from years of devotees touching the surface. Shown seated...

18th century Italian capriccio depicting ruins based on the Roman Temple of Vesta being visited by a group of Grand Tour travelers. With an arched bridge and another columned structu...

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...

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...

SHIPPING POLICY: No additional costs will be added to this order. Shipping costs will be totally covered by the seller (customs duties included). An icon of St Nicholas holding the...

Step into the romantic atmosphere of the early 19th century with this captivating Nocturnal Charcoal Drawing, a timeless masterpiece that transports you to a bygone era. This exquisi...

A late 18th-early 19th century French neoclassical drawing on paper, view of the Tiber River with the Aventine hill in Rome.

Pair of 18th- early 19th century engravings iOS snakes from an Audubon contemporary