Lot 85
A MAGNIFICENT PORTRAIT OF CHAND BIBI BORNE IN A PALANQUIN CARRIED ACROSS A HILLSIDE BY MAIDENS
MUGHAL INDIA, DELHI, MID-18TH CENTURY
Auction: 09 December 2026 from 14:00 GMT
Description
gouache on paper with use of colours and gold, mounted on an album page with gilt-decorated borders, each figure dressed in gold with embroidered robes, angels looking down from above the clouds, within gilt floral dark blue border with orange and black margin lines; verso with an illustration from a Ragamala series, Bilaval ragini: a courtesan seated under a canopy on a palace terrace at night looking into a mirror held by a maiden standing before her, female attendants waving cauris standing to the left, a peacock standing in the foreground (c. 1780)
Dimensions
18.2cm x 27.8cm
Footnote
For a comparable composition attributed to Mohammad Faqirullah Khan and dated to the first quarter of the 18th century, see W. Dalrymple and Y. Sharma, Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi 1707-1857, Yale University, 2012, no. 6. For another painting depicting a group of angels, see Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World and India, 24 April 2024, lot 40.