The heroine who waits anxiously for her absent lover (Utka Nayika) (c. 1800): Art, History and Details

The heroine who waits anxiously for her absent lover (Utka Nayika) (c. 1800) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Night has fallen. Love, moonlight, stars, and jasmine give the heroine the courage to face its dangers, but with a heightened sense of worry. Rain clouds approach, and the artist communicates her anxiety with nervous hand gestures and restless feet. She arranged a bed of leaves, but there is still no sign of her lover. Pale colors, distant cityscapes, and wooded settings became popular in Pahari paintings of the late 1700s. Her long legs and eyes, as well as the proportions of her round head distinguish most Pahari paintings of this period.

Object facts

• Title: The heroine who waits anxiously for her absent lover (Utka Nayika)
• Date: c. 1800
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 16 x 10.2 cm (6 5/16 x 4 in.); Overall: 23.8 x 14.8 cm (9 3/8 x 5 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1932.118

A detail from the museum

Utka Nayika is often shown standing or resting on a bed of leaves.

Collection credit

Edward L. Whittemore Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Heeramaneck, Alice N. Masterpieces of Indian Painting : From the Former Collections of Nasli M. Heeramaneck. New York: A.N. Heeramaneck, 1984.
• Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986.

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.