This 1600 Mughal painting of the Virgin Mary standing in Prayer is rare and almost identical to an example at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. It comes up at Christie’s sale of the Mary and Cheney Cowles collection of Indian paintings and calligraphy in London on April 28. The estimate is £30,000-50,000 (€34,780-€57,970). Christie’s the Mughal incorporations of European motifs and techniques can be seen as expressions of their cultural cosmopolitanism and universal order. Construction of the Taj Mahal started in 1632. The Seattle based couple hold one of the most distinguished private assemblages of East Asian painting and calligraphy in the western world. Their collection tells stories of emperors, poetry, love, faith and daily life across India and the Islamic world. Estimates for this portion of it, comprising 86 lots, range from works offered without reserve to £180,000 (€208,700).
