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Lot Essay
The figures so brilliantly depicted in this painting are all highly individual in character. The master artist who painted this and other portraits in the Fraser Album was phenomenally skilled in his ability to portray individualism and distinct identities, allowing the viewer to feel that, in looking at their portraits, we had actually met these people in the flesh and looked into their eyes.
Thanks to William Fraser’s meticulous labelling we know the identities of each of these characters and in many cases their occupations and origins. For many, elements of their personas are further established by the accoutrements that surround them. In this painting the second figure from the left, Moolab Baba, who has one striking blue eye, is described as a ‘scholar’. Fittingly he holds on his lap a large book, his finger marking the place where he has paused his reading. The central figure, Mudubak, is described as a religious recluse, and perhaps for this reason avoids eye-contact with the artist. The fourth figure, a Turk from Constantinople, much paler in complexion than his compatriots, is described as travelling to Delhi on a pilgrimage, and is appropriately depicted with prayer beads before him. Finally on the right hand side an elegantly dressed Khan Mohammed Durrani, a horse merchant and jeweller – in Delhi on business. He leans on a large peshkabz and has before him a qalamdan and a safina manuscript, a format typically reserved for poetic texts.
The artist behind these spectacular paintings from the Fraser Album remains unknown. The letters and diaries of the brothers frequently refer to the artists but never give names apart from those of the Patna artists Lalji and his son Hulus Lal. On the basis of differences in hand and approach amongst the paintings, we know that multiple artists must have worked on the project. Traditionally many of the best pages from the album have been attributed to Ghulam Ali Khan (fl.1817-52), a pivotal figure in the last flowering of the Mughal painting tradition, and discussed in some length in the footnote to lot 59 in this sale. However, as has been argued by Jeremiah Losty, it may also be the case that the finest portraits from the album were not his work, but rather that of another highly skilled member of his family or ‘circle’ who was even more accomplished in the art of portraiture (Losty 2011, p.8). Ghulam Ali Khan was particularly known as the originator of the Delhi topographical school. Amongst numerous other works, he painted the Diwan-i Khas which is lot 59 in this sale and its close comparable in the British Library, which he completed in 1817 (Add.Or.4694). If one looks closely at those paintings, the exquisite architectural studies are combined with a less confident command of figural drawing. Given that these works would have been painted whilst work on the Fraser Album was underway, it would have been remarkable for an artist to be so successful in both the brilliance and psychological acuity of the Fraser Album portraits and the superb topographical works at the same time.
Other members of the same family workshop, such as Ghulam Murtaza Khan (active 1809-30) were much in demand for their portraiture and so we know there were very skilled artists in this genre within the family. Although we have no concrete name with whom to associate these paintings, on the evidence of the portraits alone the ‘Masters of the Fraser Album’ must be considered perhaps the foremost portrait painter in late Mughal India.
Thanks to William Fraser’s meticulous labelling we know the identities of each of these characters and in many cases their occupations and origins. For many, elements of their personas are further established by the accoutrements that surround them. In this painting the second figure from the left, Moolab Baba, who has one striking blue eye, is described as a ‘scholar’. Fittingly he holds on his lap a large book, his finger marking the place where he has paused his reading. The central figure, Mudubak, is described as a religious recluse, and perhaps for this reason avoids eye-contact with the artist. The fourth figure, a Turk from Constantinople, much paler in complexion than his compatriots, is described as travelling to Delhi on a pilgrimage, and is appropriately depicted with prayer beads before him. Finally on the right hand side an elegantly dressed Khan Mohammed Durrani, a horse merchant and jeweller – in Delhi on business. He leans on a large peshkabz and has before him a qalamdan and a safina manuscript, a format typically reserved for poetic texts.
The artist behind these spectacular paintings from the Fraser Album remains unknown. The letters and diaries of the brothers frequently refer to the artists but never give names apart from those of the Patna artists Lalji and his son Hulus Lal. On the basis of differences in hand and approach amongst the paintings, we know that multiple artists must have worked on the project. Traditionally many of the best pages from the album have been attributed to Ghulam Ali Khan (fl.1817-52), a pivotal figure in the last flowering of the Mughal painting tradition, and discussed in some length in the footnote to lot 59 in this sale. However, as has been argued by Jeremiah Losty, it may also be the case that the finest portraits from the album were not his work, but rather that of another highly skilled member of his family or ‘circle’ who was even more accomplished in the art of portraiture (Losty 2011, p.8). Ghulam Ali Khan was particularly known as the originator of the Delhi topographical school. Amongst numerous other works, he painted the Diwan-i Khas which is lot 59 in this sale and its close comparable in the British Library, which he completed in 1817 (Add.Or.4694). If one looks closely at those paintings, the exquisite architectural studies are combined with a less confident command of figural drawing. Given that these works would have been painted whilst work on the Fraser Album was underway, it would have been remarkable for an artist to be so successful in both the brilliance and psychological acuity of the Fraser Album portraits and the superb topographical works at the same time.
Other members of the same family workshop, such as Ghulam Murtaza Khan (active 1809-30) were much in demand for their portraiture and so we know there were very skilled artists in this genre within the family. Although we have no concrete name with whom to associate these paintings, on the evidence of the portraits alone the ‘Masters of the Fraser Album’ must be considered perhaps the foremost portrait painter in late Mughal India.