A Woman in an Interior
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.In this conventional rendering of a courtly night scene, a balcony or terrace window affords a vista into the private interior world of a woman of the court, shown seated on a carpet and wrapped in a shawl against the cold, perhaps anticipating a visit from her lover. The rattan blind of the open doorway behind is rolled up, permitting a view of the bedchamber within and evoking the poignancy of unrequited love, a favorite subject in later Pahari painting. The sense of melancholy is heightened by the unusual use of cast shadows, a pictorial device borrowed from European imagery. Here the covered candle at lower left serves as the improbable light source for the dramatic shadows of the two women on the interior wall.
Artwork Details
- Title: A Woman in an Interior
- Date: ca. 1810–20
- Culture: India, Himachal Pradesh, Kangra
- Medium: Opaque watercolor with gold and silver on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 7 7/8 × 5 1/8 in. (20 × 13 cm)
Framed: 15 × 11 3/4 × 7/8 in. (38.1 × 29.8 × 2.2 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: The Howard Hodgkin Collection, on loan from the Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust
- Object Number: L.2022.30.16
- Rights and Reproduction: Photo © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art