Expecting
A rare image of a pregnant woman (or is she just waiting?), posing in a studio, with an abundance of real vegetation surrounding her.
Women
Music
[Verso, handwritten] "Oct. 24, 1915. My dear Annie, Do you think you could play this instrument? The music is very weird but I suppose they think it is nice. I don't!
Indian Dancing Girl
One of the more elaborately framed and coloured portraits of a nautch girl.
Miss Chabukswari of Delhi
Usually, dancing women were unnamed, even when they become famous (for example, Gohar Jan became a "Bombay beauty"). In this case however perhaps her name or fame justified a different approach, and it was better marketing by the unknown publisher to
Parsee Ladies at Seaside
Dhurandhar and other J.J. School students spent so much time sketching at the beach on Marine Drive, they could hardly have failed to pick-up a sight like this. The daughter in Parsee Ladies at Seaside is even more Westernized than her mother.
A Bania Lady
A beautiful example of colorization, with the rich brown of wood and skin set off against the black and white original studio backdrop. On the back, one owner has pencilled in "Hindu Bourgeois."
A Parsee Lady
Parsi women were a popular subject—progressive women with traditional virtues, counterpoints to the nautch girl. This Parsi Lady is holding what could be a postcard.
Champavati
Another example of Dhurandhar's virtuosity as a painter, with the forest of trees and white flowers lending vibrancy to woman in the foreground.
Bengal Beauty
A classic late 19th century pose, with a three-legged Victorian table, books for the woman to rest her arm on, and painted studio backdrop.
A Hill Coolie Girl
"The professional photographers of Darjeeling generated innumerable prints depicting those whose toil supported the lifestyles of the colonialists in their homes and businesses, and who created products they loved to consumer," writes Claire Harris
