Portrait of a Bibi in Lucknow

By Zoffany 
1785, India, oil on canvas

Text from Sotheby’s:

She sits in an interior before a draped curtain, with a cloudy sky visible beyond. Her hair hangs in ringlets around her sweet face, her ears and neck heavy with opulent jewellery. One arm is raised and she clasps a delicately carved jade mirror in her hand, although her eyes gaze guilelessly into the distance. Whilst the actual identity of the sitter is difficult to establish, with her rich, though informal, robes and splendid jewels it is likely that the subject of this charming portrait was the bibi of a British East India-man.

As a result of the strict customs governing the interaction of men and women in India, most artists' impressions of women were drawn either from imagination or from the only visible group, the ubiquitous nautch girl, who entertained society by dancing in public. The nautch dancers were often of the lower echelons of the strict Indian social hierarchy, and are unlikely to have been as light complexioned as this sitter. Nor would a nautch girl have owned such opulent jewellery, or be seated in a luxurious interior; it is probable therefore that a portrait of an opulent lady of society would have been commissioned by a member of the privileged Anglo-Indian community. This portrait represents both a novel development in the painting of women and also a new section of society itself, the bibis of the white Mughals. Traditionally taboo portraits of women became not uncommon during the eighteenth century, as the tastes and cultural morés of the British were established in the Raj. In such paintings of newly 'visible' women, she is often painted indoors or in a gentrified landscape, although her countenance is imbued with demureness.

This painting is likely to date prior to 1800, the year in which both private and official opinion began to turn against inter-racial marriage, and the British concept of cultural supremacy gained ground over an easy relationship between the two civilisations. 

Fine art, museum quality reproduction print on archival media, offering high quality and lasting durability. Ships unframed.

Artwork via The Met Museum