Lovers in a pavilion, Malwa, India, circa 1680, gouache on paper, depicting a couple in a bedchamber amidst cushions on a red ground, a scrolling yellow border below - 7 x 5 3/4in (17.8 x 14.8cm)Provenance: Christie's 16 Apr 2010 – Lot 572; Private Collection of J.P. Losty (1945-2021), formerly curator of Indian Visual Materials at the British LibraryIndian artists produced a small body of intimate imagery for their royal patrons, usually in the same courtly styles used for other subjects. This scene comes from a series that is painted in the bold, minimalist style of the Malwa region. Seventeenth-century Malwa paintings almost always feature figures inside a small pavilion, with flat, decorative elements to one side and below and little or no sense of spatial depth. They are like simple stage productions, but painted with a sophisticated palette that makes much use of subtle juxtapositions of color. Here, the hot red of the interior pops against the cool dark blue of the night sky. Please refer to department for condition report