The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 22, 2023

A prince celebrating Holi with palace women on a terrace at night (recto)

c. 1760

Part of a set. See all set records

India, Farrukhabad, Mughal, 18th century

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper (recto)

Page: 27.7 x 19.6 cm (10 7/8 x 7 11/16 in.); Page: 28.2 x 20.2 cm (11 1/8 x 7 15/16 in.)

Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 2013.342.a

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Pairs of ducks swim under the full moon on the night of the vernal equinox.

Description

Images of pleasure and play abound in Mughal paintings of the latter half of the 1700s. Under a full moon reflected off a river and by the light of candles, a prince celebrates the spring festival of Holi with a group of palace women. Holi festivities include the boisterous tradition of smearing one another with colored powders—shown heaped on dishes—or shooting colored liquid using plunger guns.

Provenance
1950s-September 1966
(Olsen Foundation, Bridgeport, CT, sold to Ralph Benkaim)
1966-2013
(Ralph Benkaim [1914-2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
2013-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Mace, Sonya Rhie, Mohsen Ashtiany, Catherine Glynn, Pedro Moura Carvalho, Marcus Fraser, and Ruby Lal. Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories: the Cleveland Museum of Art. London: D Giles Limited, 2016. Reproduced: cat. no. 83, p. 262
Exhibition history

Beauty in Asia. Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore (May 3-September 23, 2007).

Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 245). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 28-November 2, 2015).

Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.342.a