Seated Lady Smoking a Hookah
c. 1780
Maker Unknown
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Seated Lady Smoking a Hookah, c. 1780. Northern India, Himachal Pradesh, Pahari Kingdom of Guler. Gum tempera, gold, and beetle-wing carapaces on paper; page: 32.1 x 25.3 cm (12 5/8 x 9 15/16 in.); image: 24.1 x 16 cm (9 1/2 x 6 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.106 A lady seated at window smokes a hookah. She wears a translucent lilac blouse and gold trousers and adorns herself with jewelry comprising pearls, gold, and emeralds. Reclining against a large bolster, she is engrossed in smoking her hookah made of gold and porcelain. The painting may have been intended to be presented to the king by the artist. The artist has used beetle wings for emeralds in the jewelry.
- Maker/Artist
- Maker Unknown
- Classification
- Painting
- Formatted Medium
- gum tempera, gold, and beetle-wing carapaces on paper
- Dimensions
- Page: 32.1 x 25.3 cm (12 5/8 x 9 15/16 in.); Image: 24.1 x 16 cm (9 1/2 x 6 5/16 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: Verso: four lines of Persian script on the diagonal: “this picture of B(h)avadnal (a) Sankrhald was obtained from (found in) Biruval, Monday 23….9253.” Bhiruwal is slightly south-east of Lahore city.
- Departments
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Accession Number
- 2018.106
- Credit Line
- Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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