Elegance Reclined: Courtesan with Hookah, India, c. 1890

Details

•Museum-grade reproduction of a sepia-toned studio photograph (c. 1890s)

• Features a richly adorned Indian courtesan reclining with a hookah

• Includes detailed elements of traditional jewelry, textiles, and interior decor

• Digitally restored to retain texture, depth, and cultural atmosphere

• Printed on archival cotton rag paper with fade-resistant pigment inks

About the Artwork

This evocative 19th-century studio portrait captures an Indian courtesan in a moment of composed leisure. Draped in ornate textiles and heavy jewelry, she reclines beside a hookah, surrounded by metal vessels and decorative vases—objects of both daily life and symbolic refinement. Such portraits were often created for colonial and local patrons fascinated by the aesthetics and mystique of the zenana or courtesan culture. The image reveals the tension between performance and poise, beauty and gaze, leisure and labor—all resting beneath her calm, intelligent expression.