Princess, possibly Jani Begum, lying on a terrace, Mughal India, early 18th century Gouache and gold on paper depicting a woman lying against cushions on a terrace between two ladies-in-waiting. The woman is bare, her legs simply covered by an orange drape with green braids, and richly adorned with necklaces, bracelets, bazu-bands and earrings. With her right hand, she entwines her fingers in those of a following veiled in pink; in her left, she holds a garland of white flowers. She is facing the second green-veiled follower, who hands her a small cup on a dish. On the ground, trays of fruit and crockery, and in the foreground, a candelabra illuminate this nocturnal scene, surrounded by several borders and laminated on cardboard. On the reverse, a quatrain calligraphed later (19th century) in Persian nasta'liq in black ink, the four verses arranged obliquely in poly-lobed reserves on a gilded floral background. Around it, several borders, including a larger salmon-orange one and a composite margin with gilded floral decoration. Painting size: 19.3 x 14.3 cm; calligraphy size: 12.3 x 6.4 cm; page size: 26.8 x 17 cm Worn and missing polychromy, a few stains, composite and damaged margins around the quatrain, which has small cracks and an unfinished corner. Provenance : Sotheby's sale, London, Kevorkian Foundation Collection, December 6, 1967, lot 159. This scene repeats a composition already found on other album pages in public collections. For example, folio 3v of the MS. Ouseley Add. 171 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, or an album page in the British Museum, London, where the main protagonist is identified by an ink-calligraphy caption as Princess Jani Begum (1974,0617,0.10.41). Jahanzeb Banu Begum (died 1705), better known as Jani Begum, was a Mughal princess and principal consort of Muhammad 'Azam Shah, who briefly ruled the Mughal Empire in 1707 after Aurangzeb. Paris private collection, lots 166 to 193.