"Bhil Couple Hunting Deer at Night", Folio from the Davis Album
Night hunts were a favorite object of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Mughal painters, serving as settings for both royal hunts and for a genre of paintings featuring tribal forest dwellers, such as the couple seen here dressed in leaf skirts and hunting deer. The woman catches the herd's attention with a torch while her companion shoots an arrow, felling the stag. Their village of thatched huts, set in a forest clearing, occupies the middle ground. Illuminated by the soft glow of the moon, the composition is a study in light and shadow, the master exponent of which in the mid-eighteenth century was the painter Mir Kalan Khan, whose atelier may have been responsible for this painting.
Artwork Details
- Title: "Bhil Couple Hunting Deer at Night", Folio from the Davis Album
- Date: mid-18th century
- Geography: Attributed to India
- Medium: Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
- Dimensions: Page: H. 13 1/8 in. (33.3 cm)
W. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)
Mat: H. 19 1/4 in. (48.9 cm)
W. 14 1/4 in. (36.2 cm) - Classification: Codices
- Credit Line: Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
- Object Number: 30.95.174.20
- Curatorial Department: Islamic Art
More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Chitarman
recto: dated 1627–28; verso: ca. 1530–50
first half 18th century
17th–18th century
ca. 1640
recto: ca. 1645; verso: ca. 1630–40
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.