A GARDEN SCENE: A FEMALE COURTIER AND A CHILD EN PLEIN AIR Possibly Bundi or Provincial Pahari School, North India, 19th century Opaque pigments heightened with gold on wove paper, the vertical-format composition depicting an intimate garden scene with a female courtier reading a manuscript hanging from a tree branch, accompanied by a toddler, possibly a prince given his distinctive hat and encrusted floral belt around the waist, joined by a female attendant offering to the lady a minute gold drinking cup, a variety of full blossoms in the foreground suggesting the arrival of spring, the reverse plain except for later-added notes and inventory numbers, 22.5cm x 17cm.

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