An album page with four portraits of ladies, India, Mughal and Rajput, circa 1750

These four portraits are different in style and not connected but were mounted onto the one page in the late eighteenth century when many albums of disparate contents and appearance were put together. The portraits at the top are Mughal and the portraits below are Rajput and all date from the mid-eighteenth century. For similar Mughal and Deccani versions, see Falk and Archer 1981, no.68, f.34; Zebrowski 1983, fig.232; Hurel 2010, nos.1-2, 7, 148 and 210. 

During the Mughal period single studies of women didn't appear until the early seventeenth-century with a number found in the Dara Shikoh album (1630-33). However whether these studies were accurate representations or idealised portraits is open to debate. By Shah Jahan's reign paintings of women, often involved in activities or as standing portraits start to become more commonplace (see Losty and Roy 2012, pp.122-4 for a discussion on the Mughal depiction of women).