INDIA, CIRCA 1625-30

Details

A PORTRAIT OF KHAN JAHAN LODI, MUGHAL GOVERNOR OF THE DECCAN
INDIA, CIRCA 1625-30
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the governor dressed in a green jama and orange trousers, facing right, with salmon-pink and dark blue borders and wide buff margins, identification inscriptions in gold devanagari and black nasta’liq in the lower margin, the reverse with old inventory numbers in black devanagari
Painting 6 7/8 x 3 5/8in. (17.5 x 9.3 cm.); folio 16 ¼ x 11in. (41.3 x 28cm.)

Provenance

Collection of the Maharanas of Mewar, Rajasthan
Michael Goedhuis Collection
Sotheby’s London, 30 April 1992, lot 286
Günter Heil Collection
Christie’s Online Sale, 17-27 May 2016, lot 73

Literature

Toby Falk, Ellen Smart and Robert Skelton, Indian Painting, Mughal and Rajput and a Sultanate manuscript, 1978, no.22, p.35, ill.p.86
Claus-Peter Hasse (ed.), Islamic Art from German Private Collections, exhibition catalogue, Hamburg, 1993, pp.266-68

Exhibited

Colnaghi, London, Indian Painting, 5 April – 3 May, 1978

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Sale room notice

In addition to the provenance printed in the catalogue, please note the following provenance details for this painting.
Collection of the Maharanas of Mewar, Rajasthan
Michael Goedhuis Collection
Günter Heil Collection

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Louise Broadhurst

lbroadhurst@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2603

Lot Essay

The Afghan Pir ‘Pira’ Khan Lodi rose to power under the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and became one of his most esteemed chieftains. He was given the title of ‘Khan Jahan’ by Jahangir and made governor of the Mughal territories in the Deccan in 1625. However, he went on to accept a bribe from the sultan of Ahmednagar in the Deccan, known as the Nizam Shah or Nizamulmulk, and ceded some Mughal territories to the sultan. Khan Jahan also fell completely out of favour with Prince Parvez, elder brother of Shah Jahan, when he failed to support the prince’s accession to the Mughal throne. Shah Jahan became Emperor in 1628 but Khan Jahan distrusted him and became openly rebellious. He was hunted by imperial troops and finally killed at Sahenda, north of Kalinjar in central India on 3rd February 1631. (Beach and Koch, 1997, p.174.) The gruesome beheading of Khan Jahan Lodi is the subject of a well-known illustration in the Windsor Padshahnama, folio 94b, painted by the Mughal master artist ‘Abid in circa 1633 (ibid., cat.16, pp.50-51).

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