Waiting for Krishna

The title of this work identifies its subject as the heroine Radha, the beloved consort of the Hindu god Krishna. The great passion between Krishna and Radha and the couple's intense emotional states during moments of anguished separation and blissful reunion are known through several Hindu texts with which the highly literate Chughtai was probably well acquainted. His paintings of Krishna and Radha also speak to his general fascination with the romantic themes of South Asian literature. In this painting, as in several of his other works, Chughtai indicates the expectant female lover's distraction through her state of partial undress.