MUGHAL INDIA, LATE 17TH CENTURY

The theme of a holy man seated with a musician was a popular subject for Mughal artists in the 17th century and these scenes were quite commonly included in Mughal albums. A painting from the Late Shah Jahan Album of a dervish, musician and soldier, ascribed to the imperial artist Govardhan and dated circa 1625-30 shows a very similar scene. In that painting the musician carries a tambur over his right shoulder (Amina Okada, Imperial Mughal Painters, Paris, 1992, cat.242, p.204). Another comparable late 17th century painting, which appears be a reversed image of the present lot, sold at Christie’s London, 7 April 2011, lot 253. There the holy man is wearing a similar striped tunic with a grey sash tied around his knees. The musician carries a sitar in a similar manner, with a prince and an attendant seated in front.

The present painting is laid down between margins of exquisite illumination. This quality of refinement is usually associated with manuscripts produced in the royal Mughal kitabkhane. The gilt floral illuminated margins of our painting find closely comparison with an illuminated double-page frontispiece, dated to circa 1657, containing portraits of Timur and Shah Jahan from the Padshahnama (ff.2B,3A; Beach, Koch, 1997, nos.3,4, pp.25-27). The companion page of this illuminated folio, which was also in the Rothschild Collection, was set with a Safavid tinted drawing of two bearded dervishes seated in a rocky landscape, painted in Isfahan, dated to circa 1600 (see Colnaghi, London, 1976, no.29, ill. p.139). A 17th century Mughal painting of a sufi saint, set within similarly illuminated borders sold in these Rooms, 26 October 2023, lot 17.