The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2024

The Heroine Who Waits Anxiously for Her Absent Lover: Utka Nayika

The Heroine Who Waits Anxiously for Her Absent Lover: Utka Nayika

c. 1760–65
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Page: 26.3 x 17.8 cm (10 3/8 x 7 in.); Image: 25.2 x 16.6 cm (9 15/16 x 6 9/16 in.)
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.114
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The wildlife has been depicted in pairs of two to highlight the Nayika’s loneliness.

Description

In the hilly and verdant landscape all around her, birds and animals are all in pairs—even many of the trees have doubles—but she remains alone, waiting on a bed of leaves for her lover to arrive. She has no way of knowing when he will come, like the devotee has no way to know when god will arrive and bring salvation and bliss.
  • ?–1984
    (Doris Wiener Gallery, New York, NY, sold to Ralph and Catherine Glynn Benkaim)
    1984–2001
    Ralph Benkaim [1914–2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA
    2001–2018
    Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer, Beverly Hills, CA, partial sale and gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2018–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Supernatural Love - Indian Gallery 242 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 1-September 9, 2019).
  • {{cite web|title=The Heroine Who Waits Anxiously for Her Absent Lover: Utka Nayika|url=false|author=|year=c. 1760–65|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.114