Acquired 1990

Abrasions with age-related toning and flaking in the green ground particularly along the edges - with some flaking just touching the edge of the white dress. Laid into a Nineteenth Century album folio with multiple borders and applied and painted gold lines. Two small areas of flaking on lower right and middle left, clearly visible in catalogue illustration. Verso: Age-related toning to the folio. Conservation framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

A mysterious yogini holds a large gold chevron-design fan, encircling her head like a halo.  Her hair is pulled back behind her into an oval topknot and loosely cascades in thin curls down her shoulders.  She wears a transparent white muslin waistcoat over mauve gold-pattern paijamas.  A patchwork purple and gold shawl over one shoulder and multiple strands of pearls.  A small sheathed knife and amulets hang from her red belt.  She stands in isolation against a brilliant emerald- verdigris ground.

Mounted on a Nineteenth Century album folio with two foliate inner borders between🌄 ink and gold foil ruled lines.  Orange outer borders with gold scrolling flower and leaf desiꦿgns.

Part Sufi or part Shaivite saint?  We do not know the identity of this lovely yogini who may have been a princess with her strands of pearls and ornaments - her gilt-edged fan set with jewels - but who now appears a renunciate and solitary in her pose.  It is her ethereal quality that mesmerizes us - she seems to stand haloed somewhere between heaven🎀 and earth.

This beautiful painting represents the discovery of a previously unrecorded depiction of a Yogini from early Seventeenth Century Bijapur.  It may be attributable to the Mughal and Persian-trained Deccani artist Farrukh Husain (also known as Farrukh Beg) based upon similarities to other works inscribed or attributed to him.  A painting attributed to him, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, depicts a "Groom Calming His  Horse" (M. Zebrowski, Deccani Painting, London, 1983, pp. 98-99) which shares its glowing emerald-green shaded ground, superbly rendered figure types with oval shaped heads and delicate facial shading.  A related painting "Saraswati Plays on a Vina" in the City Palace Museum Jaipur bears an inscription: "humble Farrukh Husain painter of Ibrahim 'Adil-Shah" and depicts a yogini-like female holding a vina.  Datable to circa 1604 it also shows an oval head and shaded face, with sections of a similarly shaded emerald green color (N. Haidar and M. Sardar, Sultans of the South: Arts of India's Deccan Courts 1323-1687, New York, 2011 p. 34-37).  These two compositions contain complex landscape and architectural elements - unlike our own yogini depicted against a flat green ground - but the m🐈eticulous detail and mysterious air of the works are comparable.