Opium Smokers Served Fruit and Bread (c. 1750): Art, History and Details

Opium Smokers Served Fruit and Bread (c. 1750) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A red sandstone terrace and veranda covered with a straw mat is the setting for an assemblage of more than 30 religious figures and nobles, most of whom are depicted in varying stages of intoxication and hangovers. To the left of center is a female ascetic wearing a peach-colored robe, and throughout the composition Sufi mystics wearing blue are interspersed with white-robed clerics and Mughal nobles. Some lucidly engage in discussions, while others prepare, ingest, and experience the effects of cannabis or opium known to have been taken regularly by those seeking mind-altering states. Watermelons, apples, and flatbread are being distributed among the assembled guests.

Object facts

• Title: Opium Smokers Served Fruit and Bread
• Date: c. 1750
• Culture: India, Mughal Dynasty (1526-1756)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 18.5 x 29 cm (7 5/16 x 11 7/16 in.); with mat: 36.3 x 49 cm (14 5/16 x 19 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1971.90

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.