A Dancing girl, India, Deccan, Golconda, circa 1700

Opaque watercolour and gold on paper

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 1969
A Flower From Every Meadow: Indian Paintings from American Collections, Asia House Gallery, New York; Center of Asian Art and Culture: Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco; Albright-Knox Gallery of Art, Buffalo, 1973

Schroeder 1947
Welch 1963c, no. 2, p. 13
Welch 1973, pp. 136-137, no. 81.
Zebrowski 1983, no. 177, p.205 
Patnaik 1985, p. 57, no. 10

In very good condition overall. Small tear to the lower left-hand corner of the outer border, minor paint loss due to creasing on the image and extremely small stains. As viewed.
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This small portrait of a dancing girl is a luscious and gem-like image, conveying a powerful sensuality. It elegantly combines the delicate line and subtlety of tone associated with the Mughal school with the palette and iconography of the Deccan. The portrayal of the trees neatly encapsulates this duality. The trees on the right, despite their tropical foliage, have trunks painted in a delicate Mughal manner, almost harking back via early Mughal painting (or even Safavid Persian painting - see the tree trunk in a Golconda picture of Girl Playing a Lute of 1646-7, by Muhammad Taqi ibn Shaykh Abbasi illustrated in Zebrowski 1983, fig. 165) to prototypes on European prints. The trees on the left, however, are not only tropical in type, but are portrayed in a simplified silhouette manner more reminiscent of Rajput painting.

Zebrowski identified the transparent washes of colour and use of the orange-streaked sky with small puffy clouds as characteristic of the Deccani school during the late 17th century and attributes the painting to the Hyderabad region during the Mughal occupation of the former Golconda capital (1687-1724) (Zebrowski, in Welch 1973, p.136). In 1983 Zebrowski discussed this and two related paintings, suggesting that they were executed for a Mughal patron after the conquest of Golconda, possibly for Prince Azam Shah (1653-1707).

"This three-quarter view of a beautiful Hindu girl produces an intense impact of female voluptuousness. Her melonlike breasts, wasp waist, wide hips, triple-flexed pose, and smooth flesh - contrasting in texture with her metal girdle and jewelry - are more in the tradition of early Indian sculpture than in that of miniature painting, which usually portrays daintier heroines. The closest parallels are the buxom yashini figures of the Buddhist stupas of Sanchi and Mathura." (Zebrowski, in Welch 1973, p.136).

A drawing of a courtesan lying on a bed in a related style was published by Maggs Bros., London, in 1967 (Bulletin No.11, Oriental Miniatures and Illumination, May 1967, no.128).