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Jewel Portrait of a Young Girl
c. 1660
- Medium
- ink drawing with slight accents of color
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Image: 3.3 x 2.4 cm (1 5/16 x 15/16 in.); Overall: 4.6 x 3.8 cm (1 13/16 x 1 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- India, Mughal, 17th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Arthur L. Parker Foundation
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This small drawing of a young girl wearing a chaghtai cap may be a likeness of a member of a royal or courtly Mughal family. The accuracy of female portraiture is an unresolved issue in Mughal art, as there are many paintings of women that appear to be studies of female beauty rather than visual records of real people. However, because the girl in this painting is not an idealized type, it is more likely that this is a true portrait. Unlike jewel portraits of emperors that were intended to be worn in public as status symbols, this was more likely a private gift of sentimental value.
