A Tantric scene: An arched doorway, 
Pahari, North India, circa 1800, 
Opaque pigments on paper,...

The attractiveness of this painting lies in the minimalist depiction of a doorway and the rendered sense of depth. Indeed, an interior with an oil lamp, of which one sees only very partly, is revealed through an arched doorway itself half hidden by a wall only hinted at by a small grille. Thus, the viewers are given only a small glimpse of an interior as if they were walking through a courtyard or down a narrow alleyway only glancing at the interiors of the rooms, dwellings or temples lining them. The painter skillfully ever so slanted the plain arch, the threshold and the door jamb to give both a sense of depth and of slight movement as if the viewer inclined their head for a furtive look inside.

The painter's device recalls a painting attributed to the workshop of the family of Seu-Nainsukh and dated to the third quarter of the 18th century, "the Prayer call", which sold at Christie's 25 May 2017, lot 58. Also a rather spartan painting, a muezzin recites adhan in a courtyard facing a mosque which mihrab is seen at the end of the prayer hall. Above a field painted in very light yellow, under the archway, sits the prayer niche, or mihrab, rendered in dark grey. The play of light versus dark encourages one to imagine a fair distance with a mihrab in the shadowy recess of a prayer hall inundated with sunlight once the large main door is opened. However, in order to accentuate that sense of depth the artist slanted the architectural elements of the mosque to give the viewer an impression of a longer hall with the mihrab at its very end. Like in our painting the threshold, the spandrel nearer the viewer and the upper parts of the mosque are all inclined towards the viewer's lower right, all ever so slightly differently. The muezzin standing tall accentuate to whole effect.

Although it would be hard and somewhat futile to link our near square vignette to Christie's "Prayer Call" it is clear the use of this device to "trick" the audience in seeing depth and create space within the the confines imposed by the sheet of paper was common in the Pahari region. It also suggests the artist which painted our work was very well acquainted with this technique and with the works from the most skillful artists working in workshops such as that of the family of Seu-Nainsukh. He also succeeded in giving our rather small painting not only an unsuspected space but also a striking allure arousing the viewer's curiosity.