A Royal Damsel Enjoying Solitude with a Puff of Hookah

$875
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This item can be backordered
Time required to recreate this artwork
6 to 8 weeks
Advance to be paid now
$175 (20%)
Balance to be paid once product is ready
$700
Item Code: OS54
Artist: Anup Gomay
Specifications:
Oil on Canvas
Dimensions 41.0 inches X 31.0 inches
Handmade
Handmade
Free delivery
Free delivery
Fully insured
Fully insured
100% Made in India
100% Made in India
Fair trade
Fair trade
This large painting, oil on canvas, portrays a royal lady with rare beauty and lustrous youth – an exact Indian idiom of it, in a semi-reclining posture. Her left arm, supporting her figure, rests on a gorgeous bolster made of deep green velvet with its opening worked with gold thread so compact that it looks more like an exquisitely designed medallion made of gold out of which radiates a larger ring of green with light and deep pleats alternating mutually. The bolster is laid over a large cushion stretching across her bed-chamber’s entire breadth from towards her head to her feet. The cushion has laid over it a pearl-white sheet, as soft and eye-soothing as if made of genuine ground pearls. For better projecting the portrayed figure, the royal lady, the artist has avoided inclusion of subsidiary forms except a few, those that magnified her grandeur or balanced the otherwise monotonous canvas-space, such as the two golden cords breaking with their knotted ends terminating with beautiful tassels the monotony of the wide-spread maroon curtain, or the floral and pot-motifs on the back-wall, and these too in exceptionally subdued tones.

The cushion the lady is reclining on has been painted as laid on the floor. The artist did not conceive it with a bed or any kind of wooden structure, legged or with rising, under it elevating it to a certain height, which he believed would not only create a void – an empty space, monotonous and dull, under it, but would also distract the viewer’s attention by its emptiness or by the unwarranted forms if such forms are painted for filling this emptiness. Besides, with an elevated structure, a bed or whatever, the romantically poised figure of the lady, reclining fully stretched revealing great beauty of form, would not have had under her such elaborate base-line as she has in the painting, and would look like hanging in the space above the ground and below the sky. A unified baseline, further defined by the colourful cord of the hookah running along it, and the hookah towards the feet and a tray with fruits and golden ‘surahi’ – a pot with a long slender neck and body and a spout, towards the head, affords to the portrayed figure not only a perfect base but also a delightful contrast. The artist has made wondrous use of the cushion also in managing his canvas space; he has managed its verticality by using the cushion’s horizontal thrust in its contrast, and its horizontality, by using it as an effective dividing line – balancing the horizontality by horizontality.

On one hand, the bolster, the young damsel is reclining on, is denotative of her status and on the other, through contrast multiplies the lustre of her golden form. Besides, it gives her reclining form the perspective of height creating a rhythm and to her romantically poised figure, to her beautiful face and tempting breasts, fascinating perspective and tempting contours, which the deep maroon background further magnifies. Her curved belly, upwards raised left arm turned to shoulder, and the right, lying straight along her figure down to her knees, and her knees rising like a subdued mountain, all reveal a unique drama. Close to her face she is holding in her left hand the golden nozzle of the hookah, and in the right, stretched along her figure, a beautiful ornamental fan made of red velvet, and edges and handle, of gold. Though in a thoughtful mood as if meditating on someone or something, with a hookah and a tray with a pot of drink along with a pair of goblets and fruits in it, she seems to be enjoying her solitude.

The royal damsel, characteristic to the late nineteenth century feudatory, has been modeled with an oval face, large deep eyes, elegantly moulded arched eyebrows, cute tempting lips, sharp nose, rosy cheeks, receding chin, a finely conceived high neck, besides a broad forehead which a delicate ‘bindi’ in its centre and a diamond-studded pendant above it adorn. A patch of shade extending from the chin to the neck only further projects their forms. The artist has most effectively charged her entire figure with great sensualism, though her breasts and belly in particular. The portrait, rendered in the late nineteenth century style of Bazaar art, particularly in the idiom of Raja Ravi Varma, is superb in anatomical balance, proportions, and figural grace. She has her person adorned elegantly in few ornaments, an elegant gems’ studded necklace and a gold chain with a small delicate pendant, the auspicious one defining marital status, on her neck, a ring on her left hand finger, a pair of ear-ornaments, a large number of gold-bangles, and a delicately cast lace around her belly, alternating the usual girdle. She is as much gracefully clad in expensive wears : a lehenga – a wide skirting lower wear, made of expensive silk and worked with gold threads, a blouse intricately woven with gold tread, and a delicate odhani – an upper wear, woven with fine flower-butis.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.


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Oil painting technique – India centric

Oil painting is the most interesting technique in art. Unlike other paintings or art forms, oil painting is a process in which colored pigments are painted on the canvas with a drying oil medium as a binder. This medium helps colors blend beautifully to create layers and also makes them appear rich and dense. Several varieties of oil are used in this painting such as sunflower oil, linseed oil, etc., and depending on the quality of the oil, a particular consistency of the paint is developed. With the use of an oil medium, the painting gets a natural sheen on the surface which appears extremely attractive. India is famous for its old tradition of making oil paintings. This art form was brought by Europeans in the 18th century and is now practiced by almost all well-known artists. Nirmal, a small tribal town in the state of Telangana is the center of traditional oil paintings in India where the local people practice it with dedication. Most Indian artists still use the traditional technique of oil painting.

Canvas of the required size is prepared

The artists use either a wood panel or canvas made from linen or cotton. Sometimes the canvas is stretched onto the wooden frame to form a solid base, or cardboard may be used. The canvas is coated with a layer of white paint or chalk mixed with animal glue. This mixture is then smoothed and dried to form a uniform, textured surface. The wooden panel is more expensive and heavier but its solidity is an advantage in making detailed paintings with ease.
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Sketch is drawn on the canvas

Now the artist starts to draw the subject of the painting on the canvas using the actual charcoal or a charcoal pencil. Sometimes, he may sketch with thinned paint as well.
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Oil paint is applied using paint brushes or palette knives

Now that the rough sketch is prepared, the artist is now ready to paint. Oil paint, a special paint that contains particles of pigments suspended in a drying oil (usually linseed oil), is again mixed with oil to make it thinner for applying it on the canvas. Proper consistency of the paint is maintained to avoid its breakage. The most important rule for the application of oil paint is “Fat over lean” in which the first layer of paint is thin and later, thicker layers are applied. This means that each additional layer of paint contains more oil. This results in getting a stable paint film. Traditionally, paint was applied using paint brushes but now the artists also use palette knives to create crisp strokes. To paint using this technique, the edge of the palette knife is used to create textured strokes that appear different from that of a paintbrush. Sometimes, oil paints are blended simply using fingers for getting the desired gradation.
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Smaller oil paintings, with very fine detail, are relatively easier to paint than larger ones. The most attractive feature of these paintings is the natural shiny appearance that is obtained on the surface because of the use of oil paint. The blending of colors looks extremely realistic and this is the reason why oil paintings are loved by everyone throughout the world.
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