- Title
- A Wayside Refreshment Stall
- Date Made
- circa 1750-1775
- Medium
- Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 7 3/8 x 9 1/2 in. (18.73 x 24.13 cm); Image: 6 7/8 x 9 in. (17.46 x 22.86 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.77.154.2
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Although rare, genre scenes are occasionally featured in Lucknow painting (see also M.71.1.34). Similar illustrations are also found in contemporaneous Murshidabad painting (for example, see a view of a Shiva shrine with religious pilgrims engaged in mundane activities, now in the British Library, Add.Or.483).
According to an inscription on the reverse, this fragmentary drawing was once in the collection of Nawab Shuja al-Daula (r. 1754-1775). It depicts a refreshment stall in a bazaar with a woman on a platform selling fried sweets and tea. Behind her is a caparisoned horse and its dismounted rider who stands with his left foot on the platform and is about to pour a cup of libations from a jug. Various other animated figures approach the stand for a drink or are bringing a pitcher of replenishments. In the bottom right, a snake charmer mesmerizes two cobras with his children nearby. The child approaching the vendor carries a cup and holds a snake.
- Selected Bibliography
- Pal, Pratapaditya and Catherine Glynn. The Sensuous Line: Indian Drawings from the Paul F. Walter Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976.
