Minneapolis Institute of Art

Bust portrait of a lady wearing a man's turban

Hunhar II

Date

c. 1735–40

Medium

Tinted drawing with colors and gold laid down on card

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This portrait, conceived as a pair to the painting on the right, depicts a woman wearing a man's turban. Using the reductive, naturalistic style typical of early 1700s Mughal portraiture, the artist, Hunhar II celebrates what seems to have been a not uncommon happening within enclosed zananas (enclosed women’s domestic spaces) throughout India: cross-dressing was recorded at least since the time of Empress Nur Jahan (1577-1645). Laid down on its original floral trellis mat, a Persian verse written above the idealized beauty affirms the accomplishments of the artist: “The sleep of carelessness has carried off all, just one person [the artist] is awake.” Asia

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