PROBABLY LUCKNOW, PROVINCIAL MUGHAL INDIA, LAST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

The proportions of the body of our figure with her long legs and shorter upper body are similar to those of a portrait of a lady by Utam Chand in the India Office Library which Toby Falk and Mildred Archer attribute to Lucknow circa 1775 (Toby Falk and Mildred Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library, London, 1981, p.442, no.278). The intricate flowering plants depicted around the feet of the lady in our painting are also similarly rendered in the work by Utam Chand.The following lot comes from a Private Greek Collector. The present owner inherited it in 1965 from his uncle, Mr. Kleon Kittas. Kittas spent much of the early part of the 20th century in India. He was reported to have been an advisor on western art to several royal collectors there and to have received the manuscripts from a royal patron as a token of thanks for his crucial services.