A MAIDEN AND BEARDED MAN UNDER A TREE, DECCAN OR RAJASTHAN, CIRCA 1700

Ink on paper

Indian Drawing, Hayward Gallery, London; Wolverhampton Art Gallery; Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry; Bolton Museum and Art Gallery; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, 1983

Hodgkin and McInerney 1983, no.46

A note and labels on the backboard of the frame indicate that this skilful drawing, executed with a confident, quick hand, had originally been attributed by Cary Welch to Ajmer or Sawar in Rajasthan, around 1690, "probably by an artist trained at Aurangabad". Hodgkin and McInerney concurred with the attribution to Ajmer or Sawar, noting a distant memory of a Persian prototype. However, another note by Cary Welch on the backboard of the frame indicates that in 1999 he changed his mind and felt a Golconda origin, circa 1670, was more likely.