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Lot Essay
This painting, in which a princess sits on a throne amidst a lush yet fantastical garden, can be attributed to Rahim Deccani, based on its close similarities to signed and ascribed works by the artist. A work depicting a prince seated on a European-style throne surrounded by maidens performing music and drinking wine, offers the closest comparable. Inscribed raqam-i banda rahim dakani, it is executed on similarly rough paper with delicate draftsmanship and a restrained colour palette. Both works share a lyrical quality and are likely to have been from the same hand. That example is in the collection of the Chester Beatty Library (66.1; published Navina Najat Haidar and Marika Sardar, Sultans of Deccan India 1500-1700. Opulence and Fantasy, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2015, p.249, no.143). In both works, as in other accepted works by the artist, we see him delight in little details of movement - such as the slipper that has just been kicked off the woman’s left foot here or the birds in mid-flight - and in texture, such as the gem-cut stones inlaid in the frame of the chair or the translucency of the attendant’s kurta and of the glassware he holds.
The signature on the Chester Beatty painting, translates roughly as “work of the slave Rahim the Deccani”. The use of the artist’s nisba may imply that whilst he was from the Deccan, he was employed elsewhere for at least part of his career. There has been some debate as to whether Rahim Deccani was working in his native Deccan, or perhaps Kashmir or Iran. It was common for many Deccani artists in the late 17th century to transition between courts in the Deccan and Iran, synthesizing the Indo-Iranian style of painting at Golconda. The artist is also known to have been a skilled lacquer artist, a craft popular in both the Indian and Persian worlds.
A small lacquer jewel box in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (51.1889) can be firmly attributed to the artist based on its striking similarities to the Chester Beatty painting. Painted on all six sides, the surfaces of the casket depict a landscape very similar to the present painting of the lady in the garden, including the floral sprays, willowy trees and brilliant wildlife. The figures are also similarly executed, and as with all three examples, the central subject is seated in a European style chair in the middle of the lush garden scene. While the Victoria and Albert Museum example is attributed to late 17th century Golconda, other works decidedly more Safavid in style have been ascribed to Rahim Deccani, including a slim lacquer pencase depicting a lady in a garden sold at Christie’s London, 1 May 2001. Despite Rahim Deccani’s apparently well-travelled career, the Deccani influences in the present composition overwhelm the possibility that this was created for Persian taste.
The painting demonstrates the astute attention paid to natural and animal drawings in Mughal and Deccani painting, illustrating some of the most brilliantly coloured birds including an Indian peacock and peahen, a Satyr tragopan, another pheasant and a majestically feathered bird in the top right corner that appears to be a product of the artist’s imagination. Paintings of imaginary botanical and animal species were quite common in Deccani works, as were moments in which any logical perception of scale was abandoned, speaking to the fantastical ambiance of the school. A painting of ‘A Floral Fantasy’, attributed to Golconda, circa 1650, was recently sold as part of the Collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan, sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2025, lot 24. It illustrates the tendency of the artists in the Deccan to paradoxically combine an interest in naturalism with a disregard for the convention of scale with butterflies the size of nightingales and roses that tower over them.
Overall, this painting and the work of Rahim Deccani speak to the interconnectedness of the Indian and Persian worlds in the 17th century. The present painting is a masterful illustration of the sort, demonstrating the lyrical qualities of the Golconda style culminating from the exchanges of these two important regions.
The signature on the Chester Beatty painting, translates roughly as “work of the slave Rahim the Deccani”. The use of the artist’s nisba may imply that whilst he was from the Deccan, he was employed elsewhere for at least part of his career. There has been some debate as to whether Rahim Deccani was working in his native Deccan, or perhaps Kashmir or Iran. It was common for many Deccani artists in the late 17th century to transition between courts in the Deccan and Iran, synthesizing the Indo-Iranian style of painting at Golconda. The artist is also known to have been a skilled lacquer artist, a craft popular in both the Indian and Persian worlds.
A small lacquer jewel box in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (51.1889) can be firmly attributed to the artist based on its striking similarities to the Chester Beatty painting. Painted on all six sides, the surfaces of the casket depict a landscape very similar to the present painting of the lady in the garden, including the floral sprays, willowy trees and brilliant wildlife. The figures are also similarly executed, and as with all three examples, the central subject is seated in a European style chair in the middle of the lush garden scene. While the Victoria and Albert Museum example is attributed to late 17th century Golconda, other works decidedly more Safavid in style have been ascribed to Rahim Deccani, including a slim lacquer pencase depicting a lady in a garden sold at Christie’s London, 1 May 2001. Despite Rahim Deccani’s apparently well-travelled career, the Deccani influences in the present composition overwhelm the possibility that this was created for Persian taste.
The painting demonstrates the astute attention paid to natural and animal drawings in Mughal and Deccani painting, illustrating some of the most brilliantly coloured birds including an Indian peacock and peahen, a Satyr tragopan, another pheasant and a majestically feathered bird in the top right corner that appears to be a product of the artist’s imagination. Paintings of imaginary botanical and animal species were quite common in Deccani works, as were moments in which any logical perception of scale was abandoned, speaking to the fantastical ambiance of the school. A painting of ‘A Floral Fantasy’, attributed to Golconda, circa 1650, was recently sold as part of the Collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan, sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2025, lot 24. It illustrates the tendency of the artists in the Deccan to paradoxically combine an interest in naturalism with a disregard for the convention of scale with butterflies the size of nightingales and roses that tower over them.
Overall, this painting and the work of Rahim Deccani speak to the interconnectedness of the Indian and Persian worlds in the 17th century. The present painting is a masterful illustration of the sort, demonstrating the lyrical qualities of the Golconda style culminating from the exchanges of these two important regions.