D'après la tradition familiale, cette peinture a été découverte dans une malle de papiers acquise lors de la vente du fond d'atelier du peintre Alcide Lebeau (1872-1943) à Sanary-sur-Mer en 1943

Demeurée dans la même famille depuis

Attested from the twelfth century in sculpture, miniature painting, and illustrated manuscripts (Goud, B. K., & Sarma, M. V. S., “Composite Art: With Special Reference To The Miniature Paintings In Salar Jung Museum,” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 73, 2012, p. 420), composite art is characterised by hybrid figures combining human, animal, demonic, or mythological elements. Particularly developed in the arts of the Deccan, and later disseminated in Persian and Mughal traditions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it goes beyond mere formal representation: each figure carries a symbolic dimension, evoking the plurality of being. These compositions, often depicting a single animal formed from several others, testify both to great inventiveness and remarkable artistic virtuosity. For a discussion of this subject, see Amina Taha Hussein-Okada, Les animaux magiques dans la peinture indienne, Paris, Circonflexe, 2017.

Although lacking wings, this female figure wearing a cap represents a peri, a female angel from Islamic tradition. Her headgear in particular is one worn at the Mughal court by women of Chagatai Central Asian origin. Numerous paintings of this subject exist, including one executed in Udaipur circa 1670 in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. EA2003.1) and another from the nineteenth century in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington (inv. F1907.216).