The elaborate clothing and crowns worn by the man and woman in this painting—who are caught during an intimate moment, as he hands her a flower and she prepares to play a stringed instrument—indicate that the couple are high-ranking members of the Mughal court. The small black seal at the lower right gives a date in the Islamic calendar that can be read as 1771, which implies that this painting was either produced or collected around that year.
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper