291 x 218 mm. Group portrait of Kashmiri women seated on a carpet in a court yard. This is almost certainly the group Bourne had such difficulty posing during his 1864 expedition, ‘By no amount of talking and acting could I get them to stand or sit in any easy, natural attitude ... The English Commissioner at Srinnugur ... gave an order to have a number of the best looking girls collected, of whom I was to take a group. They were very shy at making their appearance in daylight, as, like the owl, they are birds of night. They came decked out in all their rings and jewellery, and all their silk holiday attire; but, on taking a cursory glance at them when they were all assembled, with the exception of two or three, one could not help coming to the conclusion that if these were the prettiest, the rest must be miserably ugly. Much to my annoyance, a number of gentlemen had assembled "to see the fun", and their presence by no means added to the composure of my fair sitters. They squatted themselves down on the carpet which had been provided for them, and absolutely refused to move an inch for any purpose of posing; so, after trying in vain to get them into something like order, I was obliged to take them as they were, the picture, of course, being far from a good one' (B.J.P., 25 January 1867, p. 39). Bourne no. 809.