Chokha painted another version of this heavy-lidded beauty, which painting is now in the collection of the marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, London. She wears the same sack-like dress with a plunging neckline and back turned sleeves, and occupies the same darkened chamber, lit by a single candle positioned to one side. In the Dufferin and Ava picture, the lady is seated on a dressing table. The painting focuses not on her face, but on her enormous breasts. In this painting a chubby child, with his face turned to the viewer, reaches out for his mother' neckline to reveal her naked breast.
Mother attempts to tidy the drinking vessels that baby has overturned.
But her mind is elsewhere, lost in a private world of her own. The overscaled candle is one of the many double-entendre symbols that indicate the probable direction of her train of thought. This is a riveting, yet disturbing depiction of the Oedipal urge. This description by Nitin Kumar. Nitin Kumar is Executive Editor at Exotic India.