in opaque colours and gold on paper, of oval form, the bejewelled figure wearing a ruffed dress and pouring wine from a flask into a small cup, on a black ground within a border of a floral lattice design on a pink ground laid onto an album folio with further gilt foliate lattice motifs, stock etiquette applied to the reverse, image 6.5 x 4.8cm., folio 43.8 x 28.6cm.

Provenance: Collection of Robert Skelton, O.B.E. (1929-2022)

Depictions of women in the bust portrait format were popularised in india the eighteenth century. The typical Indian format, in strict profile, was often derived from earlier portraits, usually of Nur Jahan, which, by the eighteenth century had devolved into a depiction of beauty or 'womanly ideals' rather than portraits. This depiction displays a number of overtly European traits which had become becme more familiar to Indian court artists by this period. The oval bust portrait itself has its origins in European artistic practice and her costume, hairstyle and manner of jewllery is clearly that of a European woman. The image is highly reminiscent, though in reverse, of a seventeenth century Mughal depicton of a European lady in the Victoria and Albert Museum, IM.8:2-1913. This image shares similar jewellery with a feathered hair ornament and the ruffed red dress. It has been suggested that the Victoria and Albert portrait was derived from an imported printed image of Lady Shirley, born Teresa Sampsonia, the Circassian born wife of Sir Robert Shirley, ambassador to the court of the Persian ruler, Shah Abbas, in the early 17th century. They were something of a celebrated couple, noted for their wide travels and elevated social circles, and it seems likely that their printed images came to be in relatively wide circulation, along with other notable figures of the day. The notion that the Victoria and Albert portrait is of Lady Shirley has been questioned by some but the reminiscence in both this and the Skelton portrait is detectable.