Coming from middle class background in which the family is involved in illustrating Quranic manuscript to emerging of a great artist known for his pencil, crayon, charcoal and water colour artwork giving rise to a realism called Unglamorous realism by art historian for artist Abalal Rahiman artwork.
The art piece designed by Abalal Rahiman throws a lot of information on the change in structural dimensions during the period (1860-1931). With the time range, British colonization was gaining a lot of momentum and the idealized Indian society with a hierarchy was somewhere breaking the shackles with coming up of domestic and commercial market, professional class emerging with changes in modern art and thinking. In the early time of his career, Rahiman worked under royal palace getting patron for his artwork. Their was a notion of idealizing king and articulating their power and supremacy but Rahiman moved beyond this notion and crafted painting in a different format for instance drawing portrait and canvas of marginalized community, showing the life of people rather than luxury of palace. Rahiman paintings were into catching the natural colour of the environment and for the same he even travelled to the exact location to trace the changing natural lights and portray them in his canva with water colours that were his favourite medium, capturing the realism with his creativity. In the portrait above, a woman is shown who is not from any royal palace and is doing her daily routine, being in her own self. The colours that are used in the canvas and the reflection that the artist has tried to create gives a very realistic view of the scene rather than imaginary which was the speciality of Rahiman art. Within this time frame, commerical market were growing and many artist faced a lot of financial distress which ultimately made them rely on domestic market to sell their art piece and with the coming up of Bombay Art Society it's momentum gained the speed. That's way many artist rather than relying on patronage sold their artwork in exhibition, commercial market and that's why the art work of Rahiman can be seen outside of places as well like in houses, offices that were sold or gifted by people providing how through a art piece people can learn about changes in the economic structure.
Abalal Rahiman artworks along with realism approach and portraying nature in a reflected way also provides understanding about diverse factors related to royal palace, societal and economic dynamics of that time.
The work beautifully exhibits the characteristics of the Bombay School of Art style, merging academic realism with traditional Indian subjects. Rahiman employs a highly textured stippling effect and a warm, earthy color palette dominated by deep greens and terracotta tones. The young girl’s solemn, contemplative gaze and defensive posture evoke a poignant vulnerability, while the classic water pot (ghara) in the background anchors the scene in rural Indian domesticity.
