The Cleveland Museum of Art

• Full conservation statement
  Under a night sky threatening monsoon weather, a dapper-looking man strides confidently across a courtyard garden to meet the woman who is enticingly depicted from the waist up in the window of a splendid building. The eager suitor wears a sword and holds a floral or herbal spray. In collusion, the woman gestures to him, possibly beckoning him with an extended hand while the other holds a raised finger near her lips; she is perhaps reminding him to be quiet or pointing to the ominous sky of which the suitor seems oblivious.
  
  The painting was executed in opaque water-miscible paint including gold on a laminated paper support. The scene is surrounded by three black framing lines followed by a wide border painted a vibrant red color.
  
  This artwork received conservation treatment to reduce the irregular large brown water stain, which is most obvious in the building’s blue bricks. From the back of the painting, the size of the stain is fully revealed, and it is possible to see that it moved across the sheet from left to right—or as seen from the front, from right to left. The goal of treatment was to reduce the darkest part of the stain where it terminated in the blue bricks, thereby restoring visual continuity to the composition.
  
  Using aqueous solutions cautiously applied to the face of the art while simultaneously applying a suction to the back of the sheet to pull the liquids through, it was possible to rinse out much of the stain without altering the paint layers. This entire cleaning procedure was carried out with the aid of a stereomicroscope.
  
  Treatment steps were also taken to stabilize any loose actively flaking paint scattered in the painting (see white column adjacent to the stained bricks) and to restore structural and visual integrity to the tattered red border. The red border is emblematic of most painting in India during the 1700s, so it is desirable to have it represented, in this case partially using an overthrow window mat when the artwork is on display.
• Provenance
  ?–1960

  (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

  1960–

  The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
• Citations
  Lee, Sherman E., and George Montgomery, ed. Rajput Painting. New York: Asia House, 1960. cat. no. no. 31
• Exhibition History
  Imagining the Garden. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24, 2015-March 6, 2016).

  Year in Review - Nineteen Hundred Sixty. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 30, 1960-January 1, 1961).

  Rajput Painting. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (November 30, 1960-January 22, 1961).
• Cite this Page
  {{cite web|title=Lover's Tryst|url=false|author=|year=1750–1800|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}