Group of six women in a landscape, anonymous, 1700 - 1799

brush, h 270mm × w 185mm More details

Paintings of women celebrating and being intimate with each other were popular with Europeans. The idea of the ‘exotic’ harem as a place of sensual languor where young women lived a secluded life as sex objects resonated with the Orientalist conception of India. Contemporary memoirs and travel accounts, however, paint a far more complex picture of life in the women’s quarters.