A lovesick heroine

A lady reclines on a bed in an enclosed courtyard while she is comforted by an older woman, perhaps her mother, and a young attendant at her feet. A ubiquitous subject in Indian painting, the lady is longing for her absent lover, and is heartbroken.

This painting is a beautiful display of delightful patterns which complement each other across the middle portion of the painting, in pillows, garments, the dais, and ground cover. The stylized trees in the background and clouds hanging in the sky perpetuate the balanced, delicate sense of the painting and its sensitive attention to surface.