The game of ganjifa, North India, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow or Faizabad, second half of the 18th century, attributable to Faizullah Musavvir Gouache and gold on paper depicting a group of four women seated or kneeling on the terrace of a palace, playing a game of ganjifa by candlelight, the scene taking place at night. A fifth woman on the left serves a drink from a small cup. On the right-hand upright of the pavilion porch behind them, an Arabic inscription reads "amal Faizullah musavvir" ("Made by the painter Faizullah"). Mounted on a cardboard album page with two gilded floral borders on beige and midnight-blue backgrounds respectively. On the reverse, calligraphic composition in Persian nasta'liq counting eight verses from Sa'adi's Boustan, probably Iran qâjâr, inscribed in oblique and horizontal reserves on a squared background and separated by cartouches and spandrels illuminated in gold and polychrome, a frieze of gilded palmettes on a midnight-blue background encircling the whole mounted with a gold-powdered margin. Framed. Page size: 33.4 x 25.6 cm; painting size: 23.3 x 15.6 cm; calligraphy size: 18.7 x 11.7 cm Painting: small tears, small fillings and traces of varnish (?), some polychromy; calligraphy: accidents, missing parts, folds, stains. Provenance : Galerie Joseph Soustiel, Paris, acquired in the 1960s (label on back). This intimate scene of women playing cards in the moonlight is characteristic of the Awadh school, where nocturnal scenes set on palace terraces are a recurrent theme. Softness and poetry emanate from this painting, which also shows the refinement of the courts of this Mughal province. Faizullah, whose name appears inscribed on a pillar of the pavilion, was active in Lucknow and Faizabad between 1765 and 1790. Grandson and son of flourishing Mughal artists active in Delhi, he migrated with his father to the province of Awadh in the 1760s. The Musée Guimet in Paris has a fine album page signed by him, depicting Yusuf and the Ladies of Misr in a vast garden (MA 12243). The David Collection in Copenhagen also holds an impressive depiction of a palatial complex (46/1980) attributed to the artist, as do two pages from the British Museum in London (1920,0917,0.315 and 1920,0917,0.308.1). In these four examples, the painter's taste for perspective and layered landscapes on several planes are evident, providing the backdrop for animated scenes with richly-dressed figures. Here, the space is enclosed, and the atmosphere that emanates from the scene is closer to paintings such as a page preserved at the British Library in London (Add.Or.5724) or a page sold at Christie's in London on October 10, 2013 (lot 192). Bibliography : - OKADA, Amina, in Activités du musée national des Arts asiatiques Guimet, Arts Asiatiques, 2009, 64, p 98. - SEYLLER, John, SEITZ, Konrad, Mughal and Deccani Painting, Museum Reitberg, 2010.