A Royal Couple Celebrating Holi | Restored Mughal Wall Art

A young royal couple at the centre of the spring festival of Holi, their robes already stained with magenta and saffron, women of the harem in a ring around them shyly raising syringes of coloured water. The marble courtyard runs pink with pigment; in the background, a red-canopied pavilion rises above garden walls.

The painting belongs to the Mughal-influenced provincial courts of the 18th century, where the courtly Holi scene became one of the most cherished subjects of the painters' repertoire — a celebration of love, fertility, and the arrival of spring rendered in the rich palette and supple linework of mature Mughal style.

Anonymous Mughal master, 18th century.

Restored from the museum archives by aurahliving.com.