It can be easy to stay in bubble of looking just at American, or Western, antiques and folk art, but why would one want to do that when there is so much that is amazing out there?!
This painting is Indian and, though not my expertise, would I believe be referred to as a Pahari painting, c. earlyish 20th century I believe. Watercolor/gouache on good weight paper, with hand-written text on reverse. I of course love that it is all about women in one another's company, in their private realm--making paratha (flat bread), playing music, and smoking from a hookah, with a green caged bird at dead center of the foreground, symbolic of the domestic, I imagine. With a view to a bed chamber in the background, plus the woman in foreground holding what I take for a giant red poppy. Wonderful color and pattern and faces and treatment of the architectural space--I'm really smitten with this one.
Paper: 10 7/8" x 7 7/16". Inside pink watercolor border: 8 1/16" x 5 9/16". Very good condition, crisp and lush.
