Portrait Miniature of an Indian Courtesan

Description English artists visited India to paint both large-scale and miniature portraits of those serving abroad as mementos for friends and families back in the Mother Country. They introduced the European technique of painting in watercolors on ivory to the local artists. In this instance, an artist from Delhi has portrayed a courtesan dressed as a princess wearing elaborate Mughal gold and gem-set jewelry.

Exhibitions

• Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Museum. Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2006-2009.

Provenance A.J. Fink, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; A. Jay Fink Foundation, Inc., Baltimore, 1963, by bequest; Walters Art Museum, 1963, by gift.

Credit Gift of the A. Jay Fink Foundation, Inc., in memory of Abraham Jay Fink, 1963