c. 1730

Court Woman Holding a Royal Infant

The depiction of royal infants is rare in Rajput painting. Here a little prince is elegantly wrapped in an ankle-length, long-sleeved garment, his head covered by a cloth that is twisted into two earlike fans. The woman who holds him-most likely a maid of high rank-has her fingertips and the soles of her feet painted with henna, the red herbal paste traditionally used by Indian women to soften and beautify. The careful application of red together with the finely rendered details-from the fall of her translucent scarf as it cascades over her delicately creased full skirt to the individual hairs on her head-indicate that this might be a finished work.