A DANCING GIRL, Rajasthan, Jaipur, circa 1800

This finely drawn study relates closely to a large-scale mural cartoon attributed to Sahib Ram in the Ross-Coomaraswamy Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (see Cummins 2006, p.144, pl.78) and another large preparatory drawing in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see Kossak 1997, p.119, no.75; Welch 1976, no.60, pp.108-109). The painter Sahib Ram was employed by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh of Jaipur, and his masterpiece was a mural painting of Radha and Krishna dancing, painted in the library of the City Palace (ibid, p.119), for which the Boston and New York works were probably cartoons. Cary Welch, discussing  the example in the Metropolitan Museum, commented: "...this drawing is almost essential to any major exhibition of Indian Art." (Welch 1976, p.108)