Raja with his beloved (c. 1790–1800): Art, History and Details

Raja with his beloved (c. 1790–1800) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The viewer looks through a palace window onto an idyllic scene on an outdoor terrace. A team of attendants minister to a royal couple on a swing. At the upper left one woman keeps flies away with a long-tailed whisk. Next to her, a woman in orange keeps the swing in gentle motion. On the other side, at the lower right, a woman provides a foot massage. At the upper right, one woman holds out a dish of paan; another has small bottles of wine, and another has a fan to provide extra breeze. Finally, a woman in a lavender sari gazes upon the beauty of the scene in admiration.

Object facts

• Title: Raja with his beloved
• Date: c. 1790–1800
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 18.1 x 13.4 cm (7 1/8 x 5 1/4 in.); with borders: 18.3 x 13.4 cm (7 3/16 x 5 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1989.336

A detail from the museum

The lovers are feeding betel leaf packets (paan), a mild stimulant and breath freshener, to each other.

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990.

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.