The scene of leisure portrayed here typifies the gracious style of later Mughal painting practiced at provincial centers such as Lucknow in the eighteenth century. In this composition, a prince and his consort smoke a huqqa, attended by ladies in the pleasant surroundings of a walled palace garden. Nidha Mal was a talented artist of the Delhi-based court of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (r. 1719–48) who later moved to Lucknow, where he continued to paint in the refined and naturalistic Delhi style.

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