DELHI OR LUCKNOW, 1770S-80S

Shah Alam II (r.1761-1805) ruled during troubled times for the Mughal Dynasty, as the both his vassals and the British East India Company were making inroads into his dominions. Defeated by the British and more than once placed under their protection, he was blinded by his treacherous vazir during a temporary evacuation of Delhi in 1788. Most portraits of him, therefore, show him as a blind old man. This gives a helpful terminus ante quem for the present painting.