Untitled

Ramji

late 18th century · Opaque watercolor, gold and silver on paper · Asian Art

Standing boldly against a darkened interior, an idealized woman of the court is shown holding cymbals and musical clappers. All attention is placed on her luminous figure that is aggrandized by her elaborate feathered turban, long green coat and an array of faceted gems and strings of brilliant white pearls done in low relief gesso. She is a nayika, a poetic archetype of feminine beauty who embodies the charged emotional state of separation from her lover. Building on this idea and given the blue background, associated with Krishna, she may be a court beauty dressed as his paramour Radha. Large format paintings reflecting a sophisticated taste for design and spatial ambiguity were produced only during a brief moment at the end of the 18th century at the Jaipur court. While several important painters were active at this court, the distinctive style of this painting allows for a tentative attribution to the artist Ramji.

Artist

Ramji

Date

late 18th century

Medium

Opaque watercolor, gold and silver on paper

Culture

India (Jaipur, Rajasthan)

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Evelyn Kranes Kossak, The Kronos Collections, 2017