Two ladies feeding fish, India, Rajasthan, Kota or Devgarh, late 18th/early 19th century

The format and foliage in this delightful depiction of two ladies seated near the edge of a lake-side pavilion feeding fish suggests a late eighteenth-century date. The broad forehead and tightly pulled back hair of the lady in the foreground is reminiscent of the style of Chokha, the master artist working at the courts of Udaipur and Devgarh in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The figures and faces of the women are closely comparable to the ladies depicted in ‘Madava swooning before Kamandala’ painted by a follower of Chokha in Kota and dated to circa 1840 (see S.C. Welch, A Flower From Every Meadow, Asia House Gallery, 1973, no.23, pp.50-51.) For another painting from Bundi dated to circa 1750 with Radha and a sakhi seated on a lake terrace feeding fish, see Christie’s New York, 21 March 2001, lot 193.