Ladies playing chaupar on a riverside terrace, India, Punjab Hills, Guler, circa 1800

The present painting depicts a young lady seated on a terrace by a river with three attendant ladies. They are in the midst of playing chaupar, an ancient Indian game, played on a cross-shaped board made of wood or cloth with long dice and dome-shaped wooden gaming pieces. A fourth attendant appears to have brought some distressing news, possibly a delay in the arrival of a lover, as the young lady has turned her face and tries to cover her face with her left hand.

This delicately executed painting is in the style of the generation of artists known as the ‘Second Generation after Manaku and Nainsukh’. They belong to the same family workshop and are the sons of the two sons of Manaku and the four sons of Nainsukh. For a family tree, refer to Goswamy and Fischer, 1992, p.307. The face and profile of our protaganist is also closely comparable to that of Radha in an illustration attributed to Ranjha (d.1830), the youngest son of Nainsukh, painted in Guler circa 1800 (Galloway, 2020, no.21). The landscape in the background is similar to a painting depicting a family at play on a similar terrace under a scalloped arch overlooking a river. The painting, formerly in the James Ivory collection, was attributed by S.C. Welch (Welch, 1973, no.50, p.86). and later by J.P. Losty (Galloway, 2010, no.62) to Datarpur, a small state near Guler, and dated to circa 1800. Another painting from Guler dated to circa 1810, with an almost identical arch and similar river landscape in the background, depicting a nobleman and a lady seated on a terrace, sold in these rooms, 9 October 2013, lot 257.