4 - Portrait of a Seated Dignitary Holding a Manuscript

Portrait of a Seated Dignitary Holding a Manuscript Northern India, Second Half of the 18th Century Opaque pigments, gold, and silver on paper, mounted on an album page. Page: 29.4 × 22.5 cm (11.6 × 8.9 in.); Painting: 17.7 × 11.3 cm (7 × 4.4 in.). Provenance Collection of the late Dr. Robert Douat (1926–2004), collector of Indian paintings. This portrait follows the tradition of late 18th-century Mughal court portraiture, which drew upon the great models established under Akbar and Shah Jahan and was adapted by provincial workshops in Lucknow, Murshidabad, and Delhi beginning in the mid-18th century. The subject—a learned dignitary or courtier, depicted in profile on a balustraded terrace opening onto a landscape receding into the distance—follows a codified iconographic scheme, in which the attributes (striped turban, flowered jama embroidered in gold, precious sash) and the objects arranged in the foreground (sword with an ornate scabbard, spittoon, and pandan on a bidri tray) signify both the subject’s rank and his cultural refinement. Portrait of a seated dignitary holding a manuscript, North India, late Mughal school, second half of the 18th century. Opaque pigments on paper, mounted as an album page with wide salmon-pink margins flecked with gold and framed by a deep blue band of gold floral scrollwork. The bearded sitter, shown in profile on a balustraded terrace, wears a white jama delicately strewn with gold floral motifs and a striped turban set with jewels; an ornate sword in its scabbard, a spittoon, and a pandan on a bidri tray are arranged at his feet. The composition belongs to the codified tradition of Mughal court portraiture as developed in the workshops of Lucknow, Murshidabad, and Delhi in the late 18th century.