Opium Smokers Served Fruit and Bread
Unknown Artist
c. 1750
Medium
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Dimensions
image: 18.5 × 29 cm · with mat: 36.3 × 49 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
Accession Number
1971.90
About this artwork
A red sandstone terrace and veranda covered with a straw mat is the setting for an assemblage of more than 30 religious figures and nobles, most of whom are depicted in varying stages of intoxication and hangovers. To the left of center is a female ascetic wearing a peach-colored robe, and throughout the composition Sufi mystics wearing blue are interspersed with white-robed clerics and Mughal nobles. Some lucidly engage in discussions, while others prepare, ingest, and experience the effects of...