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Lot Essay
The inscription below the miniature is an attribution to Manohar which reads, tashbir-e Shah-e Babur kar-e Manohar, 'portrait of the Emperor Babur, work of Manohar, according to his likeness'.
Although the signature on this work is most probably a later addition, both the painting and the illumination are absolutely of the highest quality. Manohar, son of the great painter Basawan, began his career in Akbar's atelier in the 1580s, numbering amongst his first works the illumination of a copy of Sa'di's Gulistan dated AH 990/1582 AD which also included a self portrait (Linda York Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings, vol. II, London, 1995, p.1111, the image reproduced in Amina Okada, Imperial Mughal Painters, Paris, 1992, no.155, pp.138-39). Manohar's portraits are marked with a pictorial precision and concern for detail, which is found here, for instance in considering the detail with which Babur's robe is illuminated. Manohar continued working into Jahangir's reign, of whom he painted a number of portraits.
Although the signature on this work is most probably a later addition, both the painting and the illumination are absolutely of the highest quality. Manohar, son of the great painter Basawan, began his career in Akbar's atelier in the 1580s, numbering amongst his first works the illumination of a copy of Sa'di's Gulistan dated AH 990/1582 AD which also included a self portrait (Linda York Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings, vol. II, London, 1995, p.1111, the image reproduced in Amina Okada, Imperial Mughal Painters, Paris, 1992, no.155, pp.138-39). Manohar's portraits are marked with a pictorial precision and concern for detail, which is found here, for instance in considering the detail with which Babur's robe is illuminated. Manohar continued working into Jahangir's reign, of whom he painted a number of portraits.