Open full image Pin

Girls Spraying Each Other at Holi

Unknown

1645

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Baroque Mughal Painting Baroque Genre Scene

Dominant colour

About this work

Bright colors fly everywhere in this small painting. Women in a palace courtyard toss red and yellow powder at each other, laughing. One woman playfully pins another in a headlock, pouring dye down her back. This scene comes from Holi, the Hindu spring festival. The artist borrowed the lively pose from Mughal court paintings, but made it feel like a private joke among friends. The Rajput kingdom of Bikaner, where this was made, often mixed Mughal and local styles. To see more playful Rajput scenes, look up the Rajput kingdom of Bikaner.

The story of this work

Overview

The antics of Holi, the festival of spring, are in full tilt in this scene that takes place in the women's quarters of a palace. Most of the women have already been stained with the red and yellow colors that they squirt and smear on one another to the beat of handheld drums and a lively song. In a composition repeated from an imperial Mughal scene, one woman aggressively and playfully has another in a headlock and pours red liquid down her blouse. The princely state of Bikaner had close ties with the Mughal court, and some of its artists were familiar with Mughal painting, as is evident in…