Act 1 Part 2 Summary

Das arrives on his bicycle carrying his painting gear as Flora comes out in a blue dress. She sits down to write a letter as Das sets up his gear. Pike puzzles over what Flora means in a letter by a reference to a smudge of paint, and of Flora wondering if her portrait will look like the mythic figure of Radha. Mrs. Swan cuts Pike's questions short, revealing that there's an oil painting that she says looks like an Indian movie poster upstairs. When Pike becomes excited and comments on how it's the only portrait that exits, Mrs. Swan says that it's the second one, the first one having been done in Paris by Modigliani before he was famous. It was burned to ashes in a bathtub in the Ritz Hotel. She and Pike go off to get the painting...