Indian - A Princely Voyeur - Walters W867

This is a typical genre scene of a peeping-Tom prince watching a bevy of beauties bathing in a public place, in this case the bottom of a narrow stream, where a pool has formed with blooming lotuses and three ducks that look like toys. The startled ladies, in various states of undress, have just seen the voyeur on his horse behind a row of trees. The elderly duenna quickly tries to shield the princess from his gaze by improvising a screen with part of her white dress. The bullock cart that brought the ladies stands behind the foliage on the upper right.