Full painting: [1]

Title: Native Lady of Umritsur (generic title)

'A Native Lady of Umritsar', oil on canvas possibly by Horace van Ruith, Amritsar, 1880s

This painting shown in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886 was bought by the South Kensington Museum the same year. It was described on acquisition as the depiction of "A Native Lady of Umritsar".

'Lady from Amritsar' is a late nineteenth century oil painting depicting a lady wearing very elaborate, embroidered garments. The painting is said to have been worked in 1880 by the English artist, Horace van Ruith (1839-1923), although there are some questions about this attribution.

Images of and info on this painting can be found at: [2]; [3]; [4]; [5]; [6]; [7]

It was published as cover-art for the book The Lost Heer (2025).

Harleen Singh provided further details about the jewelry worn by the woman here: [8]

She wears traditional ornaments - a paasa at the temple, gold jhumkas, a nose ring shaped like peepal leaves, jarao or meenakari jewelery, taweez, large nose rings amongst other traditional pieces. She adorns an aarsi in her finger - the mirror ring once worn by women across Punjab. A delicate dupatta with gilded lace drapes her body. Her garments are just as elaborate silk, zardozi embroidery, layered silhouettes and a decorative paranda dangling on her hair. In her feet, she wears silver anklets and toe rings, for gold was too sacred to be worn in the feet.