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An ink and opaque watercolor painting of a woman sitting on a large chair and holding a flat instrument. She is surrounded by a landscape with trees, rocks, and a building behind her. She wears a long, draped garment with a floating cloth around her.

An ink and opaque watercolor painting of a woman sitting on a large chair and holding a flat instrument. The page is a tan color and the ink is colored black/brown. She is surrounded by a landscape with green trees, rocks, and a building behind her. There is a small animal to her left. She is at the bottom-left of the image and faces the viewer’s left. The chair she is sitting on has details along the bottom and a large pillow behind her. She wears a long, draped garment with puffed sleeves and a floating cloth around her. Her hair is up behind her head.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2011.538
People
Attributed to Govardhan, Indian
Title
Woman Playing a Zither (drawing, recto) after a European source; calligraphy (verso) by an unknown artist
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1610
Places
Creation Place: South Asia, India
Period
Mughal period
Culture
Mughal
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/216541

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black ink, opaque watercolor and gold on beige paper
Dimensions
27 x 18.1 cm (10 5/8 x 7 1/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: Verso: “May your pomp and rank increase daily, May the whole world be your cavalry and army, May every place be the dust of your path, May your refuge be in the shadow of God's grace.” Translation by Sunil Sharma.
    At the lower left corner of the page one may read part of the name of the calligrapher “Abdallah”, however, that area was badly damaged.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Louis J. Cartier, Collector. Stuart Cary Welch, Jr., Warner, New Hampshire (by 1962-2008), by inheritance; to Edith I. Welch, Warner, New Hampshire (2008-2011), gift; to Harvard Art Museums 2011.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch
Accession Year
2011
Object Number
2011.538
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
The recto of this album folio depicts a woman seated outdoors on an elaborately decorated chair, as she sings and plays the zither. Clad in European garments, her facial features and jewelry are clearly Indian, as is the pillow on which she rests her foot. The chair is ornamented with figures in European garb, some of which suggest Christian themes. A bushy-tailed animal, perhaps a cat, crouches just behind the chair. The landscape features architecture, rocky outcroppings, and trees of quite different scale. The top band and right side of the drawing are made on a different piece of paper. The verso of this folio holds a calligraphic composition consisting of two couplets of Persian poetry written in nasta’liq script in diagonal format.

Publication History

  • Stuart Cary Welch, "Mughal and Deccani Miniature Paintings From a Private Collection", Ars Orientalis; The Arts of Islam and the East, Freer Gallery of Art / Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C., 1963), Vol. 5, 221 - 233, fig. 10, pl. 6
  • Gauvin Alexander Bailey, The Jesuits and the Grand Mogul: Renaissance Art at the Imperial Court of India, 1580-1630, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C., 1998), page 24/figure 15
  • Stuart Cary Welch and Kim Masteller, From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, 2004), pp. 98-100, no. 25
  • Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity (London, Thames & Hudson, 2021)., p. 74, ill.; pp. 298-299, no. 29

Exhibition History

  • The Music Room, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/22/1984 - 11/11/1984
  • Precisely to the Point, Daggers and Drawings from Persia and India: 15th-19th century, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/30/1992 - 07/26/1992
  • Linear Graces ... and Disgraces: Part II, Drawings from the Courts of Persia, Turkey, and India, 15th-19th Centuries, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/26/1994 - 03/05/1995
  • From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from SCWelch, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 03/19/2005 - 06/02/2005
  • Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, 10/21/2021 - 02/20/2022

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu