Women bathing before an architectural panorama (c. 1765): Art, History and Details

Women bathing before an architectural panorama (c. 1765) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Fayzullah (Indian, active c. 1730–1765).

The work and its context

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

Despite the wars waged and forts besieged in the background, life in the palace is carefree and luxurious. Some women enjoy hookahs and music on balconies, while others swim and drink liquor with abandon from Chinese porcelain cups and bottles. The artist has placed his name under the central pavilion, observing the scene across a formal garden of marigolds. The artist seems to have enjoyed experimenting with the idea of perspective, learned from European sources. He created a rapidly receding space that telescopes the view from the intimate harem quarters to the distant battlefields.

Object facts

• Title: Women bathing before an architectural panorama
• Date: c. 1765
• Creator attribution: Fayzullah (Indian, active c. 1730–1765)
• Culture: India, Lucknow, Mughal
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.344

A detail from the museum

The artist signed his name below the king’s seat that overlooks the garden vista.

Collection credit

Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ellcock, Stephen. The Book of Change: Images to Inspire Revelations and Revolutions. London: September Publishing, 2021.
• Mace, Sonya Rhie, Mohsen Ashtiany, Catherine Glynn, Pedro Moura Carvalho, Marcus Fraser, and Ruby Lal. Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories: the Cleveland Museum of Art. London: D Giles Limited, 2016.

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.