Gate of the Arab Sarai in Delhi

Arab Sarai, built in 1560 by Hamida Banu Begum, wife of the Mughal emperor Humayun, to accommodate 300 Arabs she had brought to Delhi from Mecca, was restored to its former glory in 2018. But when Pedersen painted it, a little more than a century ago, it was evidently in need of repair, having withstood time for more than three hundred years by then. The lower ends of the gate’s border seem to be crumbling with their pietra dura inlay stonework falling apart. The Danish artist lends the Mughal monument a befitting air of regalia with his impressionist brushstrokes.