A STANDING PORTRAIT OF A COURTLY LADY Provincial Mughal school, Northern India, 19th century Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition portraying a heavily bejewelled lady en plein air , in the fashion of a Hindu nayika , holding a full-blown lotus and standing in between a cypress tree, possibly symbolising the beloved, and a cherry tree, possibly symbolising the full spring of the lover's feelings, a washed green background with clouds heightened with red and a dark green border with gold floral and vegetal detail, 19.2cm x 12.8cm.