In addition to the Indian Peepal leaf paintings that I mentioned seeing at the yard sale in Kingston, I also saw this framed Indian art, which caught my eye. I took a close look, and to be honest, I couldn’t tell whether it was an original painting or some type of print. It had the suggestion of textured brush strokes, but I couldn’t be sure. My guess is that it was probably some sort of reproduction, considering the price being asked was around $50. If it was original, or unique, I might have likely bought it, but I wasn’t willing to take the risk of spending $50 on a potentially glorified poster.
Here’s a closer look at a detail from this Indian art piece I saw; what do you think?
I suppose I could have asked the guy who was manning the yard sale, but as I mentioned, his English wasn’t so good, using Google translate to have his Chinese responses readable in English for me. And who knows if he even knows, or would say whatever it takes to make the sale? I see paintings like this online for over $1,000, but I also see similar pieces noted as reproductions for as low as $30, so I’m guessing this is no accidentally-low-priced original masterpiece. I see some suggestion that it could be “Mughal” art, which I can’t verify, but considering I don’t know anything about Mughal art, after doing a little research, I can tell you that it refers to a South Asian style of painting on paper made either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums, originating from the territory of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. Mughal art emerged from Persian miniature painting (which itself comes partially from Chinese origin) and developed in the court of the Mughal Empire of the 16th to 18th centuries.
Funny how driving by and stopping at a yard sale can provide a couple art history lessons to a former art history major!