Mughal, c.1575-90
Opaque pigments with gold on paper
The reverse with Mughal Royal Library inspection notes, ownership seals and further inscriptions in black and red ink
Painting: 16.3 x 23.5 cm; folio: 19.9 x 27 cm
Mughal, by a court artist, mid 18th century
Opaque pigments and gold on paper, laid down on a gold decorated album page
Painting: 27.5 x 17.5 cm; Album page: 50.7 x 40 cm
Illustration from a dispersed Harivamsha series, numbered 86 on the reverse
Attributed to Purkhu, Kangra,
c. 1800-15
Opaque pigments and gold on paper
Folio: 36 x 47.2 cm including red border
Attributed to Muhammad Gawhar
Mughal, India
c. 1690
Opaque pigments with gold on paper
Folio: 39.8 × 28.1 cm; painting: 20 × 12.9 cm
Reverse: Calligraphy signed by Abu’l al-Baqa al-Musawi, dated A.H. 1098/1686–87 c.e.
22.3 × 11 cm
Provenance
Private collection, UK
Images of beautiful women relaxing in the imperial zenana must have held vicarious appeal for the Mughal court, for most men were barred by protocol from ever venturing into that highly restricted part of the palace. It is also likely that royal women themselves appreciated depictions of their own realm; in fact, one late 17th-century drawing of a gawky pre-adolescent male servant is inscribed with a note indicating that it was made expressly for the amusement of the ladies of the zenana. In such a luxurious environment, where wine and music flowed freely, pleasures were savoured, and feelings of intimacy were readily kindled.
This painting captures one such stolen moment in the zenana. On a summer’s night when the crescent moon has yet to be swallowed up by approaching cloud banks, two princesses lounge together on a terrace that overlooks a shadowy grove of loquat trees. Two attendants stand and kneel nearby, proffering the contents of delicate glass bottles and a shallow golden dish. A lone musician, her lips parted slightly in song, plucks the tambura as she serenades the pair of royal ladies. Additional vessels, fruits, and blossoms are arrayed across a yellow floor covering with an unobtrusive pattern. Most of these elements are standard in such formulaic terrace scenes.1 What creates this painting’s compelling emotional warmth, however, are nuances of glance, pose, and painting technique. The two princesses, for example, lean their heads together conspiratorially so that one princess can discreetly receive the confidential whisper of the other, who simultaneously glances outward towards the viewer to watch for potential eavesdroppers. The two women sit very close, the one extending her sprawling leg between those of her companion and the other reciprocating with a hand resting suggestively on it. Curling wisps of smoke rise from three candles, which, along with the fleeting moonlight, bathe the royal coterie in soft, atmospheric light without casting overt shadows. Most of all, every bit of warm-toned flesh is given a sensuous, palpably textured surface. For example, along with the hands and torso of the standing maidservant, the faces of the two princesses and the musician are modelled with tiny, granular marks – an effect reminiscent of the style of the Mughal master Govardhan (active 1596 – c. 1645) and unlike the taut, eggshell-like treatment of faces commonly seen in the work of such mid 18th-century painters as Muhammad Afzal (active c. 1730–40). This artist renders gold-hemmed diaphanous cloth with admirable skill, as exemplified by the sheer garments worn by the princesses, and complements it with a strikingly painterly treatment of heavier but seemingly fluffy fabrics such as those of the seated servant’s mustard-coloured shawl, peach-coloured lower garment, and white patka. One more unorthodox detail is also distinctive enough to merit mention: the scratchy striations on the figures’ forearms that describe the dense network of folds in the sheer material.
Our knowledge of individual Mughal artists operating at the end of the 17 century has deepened considerably in recent years. One painter who has not yet figured significantly in that revised account is Muhammad Gawhar (or Guhar), previously known from only two ascribed works.2 On the basis of their pronounced similarities with the present work in the exact shapes of the facial features and hands, and especially the all-over texture marks applied to the face, neck, and hands, this painting and a fine bust-length image of an elegant Mughal lady holding a cup and saucer appear to relate to Muhammad Gawhar.3 It is probable that an artist this accomplished worked for a Mughal prince such as A‘zam Shah (1653–1707), who, along with his sibling, son, and nephew, Princes Mu‘azzam (1643–1712), Bidar Bakht (1670–1707), and ‘Azim al-Shan (1664–1712), was the face of imperial Mughal patronage of painting in the decades around 1700.
Mounted on the reverse of the folio are verses from a ghazal is a quatrain of Sa’ib Tabrizi (d. c. 1676) written in nasta‘liq by the 17th-century calligrapher Abu’l-Baqa al-Musawi in A.H. 1098/1686–87 C.E. From a family of Sayyids from Abarku in central Iran, he lived primarily in Isfahan, but at one point travelled to India, where he left behind a specimen written in Shahjahanabad (Delhi).4 He was in the service of the physician Taqarrub Khan, who also emigrated to India, where he served as royal physician, as well as Taqarrub Khan’s son Mirza Muhammad ‘Ali Khan.
1. Indeed, a contemporary painting with practically the same composition and series of poses, albeit with minor differences in the patterns of clothing and floor covering and especially a bright sky at sunset rather than one representing the dark of night was offered at Sotheby’s, London, 24 April 2013, lot 82.
2. Standing Youth, dated A.H. 1103/1691–92 C.E., published in B.N. Goswamy, Jeremiah P. Losty, and John Seyller, A Secret Garden: Indian Paintings from the Porret Collection (Zurich: Museum Rietberg, 2014), cat.9; and Mirza Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman, ascribed on the painting raqamahu Muhammad Gawhar, c. 1690-1700, and published in Sotheby’s, London, 26 October 2022, lot 69.
3. Royal Library, Windsor, RCIN 1005068.aa, f. 25r.
4. Christie’s, 10 October 2006, lot 118. His career is discussed in Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va athar-e khushnevisan, vol. 1, Tehran, A.H. 1345 H.sh./1966 C.E., pp. 22–24
Portrait of a Bengali Hindu in a Landscape
c. 1790
Opaque pigments on paper
96.5 x 63.5 cm
Large paintings of birds, animals and botanical studies by Indian artists working in the late 18th century are well known and were done in significant numbers. But figure portraits like ours on this scale are almost unknown to studies. In the past it has been suggested that our unusual portrait represents a holy man, but this is clearly untenable. Hindu holy men are generally ascetics, but our figure is rather different. The elegance of his demeanor and his simple but expensive attire suggests that he was a high caste Bengali of some distinction – but there are other clues to his identity. Our figure stands on the edge of the Hugli and sailing on the river, entirely out of scale, is a small East Indiaman. This suggests that he may have been a young Gomashta working for the East India Company in one of the settlements upriver from Calcutta dealing in goods for export. Bengali Vaishnavism, which goes back to Chaitanya (1486–1534) and his successors, is particularly prevalent in the district of Bengal now bordering Jharkhand – this gives us a clue to our Bengali’s origins.
India’s Fascination with the Natural World
Mughal, Rajput and Company School Paintings
March 13 – 20, 2025
Exhibiting at: Les Enluminures Gallery, 23 East 73rd Street, 7th floor Penthouse
Asia Week Hours: 10am-6pm, dailly (otherwise by appointment)
In 1621 a zebra from eastern Africa was presented to the emperor Jahangir, who had never seen an animal like this and thought his coat had been painted. But ‘after inspection it was clear that that was how God had made it’ (Jahangirnama -Memoirs of Jahangir Emperor of India). And so he had his master artist Mansur paint this zebra. This painting is currently on display in The Great Mughals exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (Nov. 2024 – May 2025).
Our Mughal zebra, which we are proud to present at Asia Week, is of a similar date, but by a different hand. Such paintings are extremely rare and important, because they illustrate Imperial fascination with the wider natural world – animals that were not indigenous to India, like red squirrels, turkeys, ostriches and in our case a zebra.
A late 16th century Mughal portrait of a caparisoned horse with its three grooms, in spectacular condition, has a most unusual background, which evokes a Rothko painting. This miniature was once in the Imperial Mughal library, confirmed by numerous 17th century seals and inscriptions on the verso. The highly influential Mughal courtier, Asaf Khan,‘borrowed’ this painting during his lifetime. Of Persian origin, he became prime minister to Jahangir and later to Shah Jahan, and his daughter, Mumtaz Mahal, was the beloved wife of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal in her memory.
India’s natural world also enchanted foreigners who spent time in this country. Foremost amongst these was Lady Impey who commissioned master artists, trained in the naturalistic Mughal tradition, to depict the animals in her Calcutta menagerie. In Indian art the Impey series of natural history drawings are considered the finest of their kind. Our notoriously cheerful and cheeky Lorikeet is from Lady Impey’s collection. The Rainbow Lorikeet are native to Australia but are also to be found in India.
Our large, bust-length portrait of a beguiling Mughal Princess is by an unknown 18th century master. She holds a Phalsa (an Indian berry) between her left thumb and forefinger because it was to be consumed with wine, in the tiny blue and white porcelain cup she holds in her right hand – a delicious delicacy of the time.
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PREVIOUS HIGHLIGHTS
Autumn Highlights: Purkhu Harivamsha folios and the Rind Album pages
We are pleased to present our Autumn Highlights, this select group of works derive from private collections and are fresh to the market. Amongst these, The Purkhu Harivamsha folios and the Rind Album pages in particular are exciting folios, as are a small group of Mughal material acquired on the London market in the 1970s.
Two of the paintings from the Purkhu Harivamsha Series belong to a well-known Pahari series of the Harivamsha (Genealogy of Hari [Vishnu]). Comprising 16,374 shlokas and traditionally credited to the ancient sage Vyasa, the text of the Harivamsha recounts the life of Krishna in a level of detail matched only by the Bhagavata Purana. This particular series, which consists of large number of paintings without a running text or even a brief synopsis on the reverse, is widely associated with the work of Purkhu, a leading artist of the Punjab Hills. Although Purkhu has no known paintings ascribed to him, his name is known from pilgrimage records in the area that establish his position within a family of professional painters.[i] His major patron was Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra (r. 1775-1823), who maintained a large painting workshop. Upon Sansar Chand’s loss of Kangra fort and town to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1809, Purkhu apparently accompanied his patron as he moved from Kangra to the village of Samloti.[ii] If the early years of Purkhu’s long career were occupied primarily by portraits of his young patron and others at court, the years shortly after 1800 were spent illustrating or guiding the workshop production of several series, notably the Harivamsha, Gita Govinda, Rasikapriya, Shiva Purana, and Ramayana, most of which are large-scale in format and extensive in scope, regularly numbering more than a hundred paintings each.[iii]
[i] According to B.N. Goswamy and E. Fischer, Pahari Masters. Court Painters of Northern India (Zurich, 1992), p. 368, Purkhu is named as the son of Dhummun of Kiru, the brother of Buddhu and Rattu, and the father of Ramdayal, Ramkishan, Chandanu, and Ruldu.
[ii] Goswamy and Fischer, Pahari Masters, p. 368.
[iii] Goswamy and Fischer, Pahari Masters, p. 369-370.
Our two large watercolors were made for the Rind Album, compiled by Major James Nathaniel Rind (baptised 1753-1814). Born in Scotland, Rind travelled to India in 1778, where he was stationed until 1801. He held several posts during his time there, but appears to have spent most of his employment on survey duty. It seems that Rind was based in Calcutta from 1793 to 1801.
Paintings from Rind’s extensive album were first introduced to a wider audience at Sotheby’s in 1971, when part of his collection was sold by his descendants, including our Portrait of a Bengali (lot 48). Other folios in the sale included depictions of fish, birds and plants. A second sale of paintings from the Rind Album took place at the same saleroom in 1985.
While many of Rind’s paintings are relatively conventional, some are truly extraordinary. The Rind paintings included in Stuart Cary Welch’s landmark 1978 exhibition of Company School paintings are of very different subject matter. Three are botanical studies, one is an elegant depiction of a snake and one illustrates the eccentric sheep eater of Fategarh, Suza Geer Berah Geer, slowly devouring a sheep with his teeth, his face smeared with blood (Welch, 1978, no 11 & ed. Dalrymple, 2020, no 75). Rind, obviously fascinated by idiosyncratic subjects as well as more conventional botanical studies, must have therefore commissioned works from different artists or assembled his collection from several sources (Noltie 2020, p. 81). Some of Rind’s paintings bear the initials ‘J.N.R.’ in pencil on the reverse. Among the most gifted artists working for Rind was Chunni Lall whose work was also acquired by Sir James MacGregor.
With forty years of experience and expertise, today Francesca Galloway is known as one of the foremost galleries dealing in Indian painting and courtly arts. Combining a personal approach with a global outlook, we regularly exhibit internationally. Collaborating with the leading scholars in this field, our catalogues and publications are reference works in their own right, helping to advance the research and visibility of this fascinating and important subject.
