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Lot Essay
Another almost identical painting of Rao Bharah and Jassa Jam in conversation on a carpeted terrace and also ascribed to Bishan Das was part of the Wantage album, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IM.124-1921). Although there are several differences between the two paintings (for example the carpet in our painting is lacking in the Victoria and Albert painting, whilst our painting lacks the willowy tree behind) the fine quality of the faces in the present painting suggest the same artist was responsible for at least the figures in both paintings.
Despite the two paintings of the same scene by the same artist, this meeting is entirely imagined. Both men from Gujarat are recorded as having visited Jahangir's camp near Ahmedabad in 1618 but also as doing so entirely separately. Rao Bharah, on the left, is recorded as the largest landowner of Gujarat. After he harboured the rebel Sultan Muzaffar it was essential that he visited Jahangir and paid fealty to the Emperor. He brought with him one hundred horses as gifts, none of which Jahangir took a liking to (Wheeler Thackston, Jahangirnama, Washington D.C., 1999, p. 267). Jassa was the ruler (Jam) of Nawanagar on the Kathiawar peninsula which was a tributary state to the Mughals.
Although the meeting of the two men is imagined by Bishan Das, it derives from portraits of both Rao Bharah and Jassa Jam probably done from life by Abu'l Hasan and Govardhan respectively. The portraits are appropriately mounted facing one another on folio 23r of the Jahangir album, now in the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (Libri picturati A 117). If our painting, like the Victoria and Albert painting, is indeed by Bishan Das then it must have been painted after 1620, following the artist's return from accompanying an embassy to Safavid Iran (Susan Stronge, Painting for the Mughal Emperor, London, 2002, p.139). It very plausibly directly referenced the Jahangir album.
The margins of our folio are finely decorated with floral studies and cloudbands outlined in gold - very similar in style to those found in the Minto, Kevorkian and Wantage albums. This style of marginal decoration has been dated to circa 1630-40, during the reign of Shah Jahan (see Elaine Wright, Muraqqa, Imperial Albums from the Chester Beatty Library, Hanover and London, 2008, pp.99-102). The Minto album, along with the Kevorkian and Wantage albums, are each a compilation, probably made up in the 19th century, of folios drawn from a much larger corpus of folios that comprised discrete albums in the time of Jahangir and Shah Jahan. It is unclear exactly how many folios originally comprised this corpus. Linda York Leach estimated that there were at least 8 albums of 60 folios each, however it has also been estimated that there were as many as 19 albums (Mughal and other Indian paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, London, 1995, pp.377 and 380). It seems very likely that our folio comes from this wider corpus of former imperial album folios. Further supporting this is the number '60' written in black ink below the ascription to the artist Bishan Das. Nearly all of the original 17th century paintings in the later albums include foliation numbers, typically in the gold border separating the inner borders and outer margins (Leach, op.cit., p.374).
A folio from the Nasir al-Din Shah album with comparable margins formerly in the collection of Toby Falk was sold in these Rooms 27 October 2023, lot 1. Whilst a painting attributable to Bishan Das illustrating a page from the Garshaspnama was sold in these Rooms 31 March 2022, lot 60.
Despite the two paintings of the same scene by the same artist, this meeting is entirely imagined. Both men from Gujarat are recorded as having visited Jahangir's camp near Ahmedabad in 1618 but also as doing so entirely separately. Rao Bharah, on the left, is recorded as the largest landowner of Gujarat. After he harboured the rebel Sultan Muzaffar it was essential that he visited Jahangir and paid fealty to the Emperor. He brought with him one hundred horses as gifts, none of which Jahangir took a liking to (Wheeler Thackston, Jahangirnama, Washington D.C., 1999, p. 267). Jassa was the ruler (Jam) of Nawanagar on the Kathiawar peninsula which was a tributary state to the Mughals.
Although the meeting of the two men is imagined by Bishan Das, it derives from portraits of both Rao Bharah and Jassa Jam probably done from life by Abu'l Hasan and Govardhan respectively. The portraits are appropriately mounted facing one another on folio 23r of the Jahangir album, now in the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (Libri picturati A 117). If our painting, like the Victoria and Albert painting, is indeed by Bishan Das then it must have been painted after 1620, following the artist's return from accompanying an embassy to Safavid Iran (Susan Stronge, Painting for the Mughal Emperor, London, 2002, p.139). It very plausibly directly referenced the Jahangir album.
The margins of our folio are finely decorated with floral studies and cloudbands outlined in gold - very similar in style to those found in the Minto, Kevorkian and Wantage albums. This style of marginal decoration has been dated to circa 1630-40, during the reign of Shah Jahan (see Elaine Wright, Muraqqa, Imperial Albums from the Chester Beatty Library, Hanover and London, 2008, pp.99-102). The Minto album, along with the Kevorkian and Wantage albums, are each a compilation, probably made up in the 19th century, of folios drawn from a much larger corpus of folios that comprised discrete albums in the time of Jahangir and Shah Jahan. It is unclear exactly how many folios originally comprised this corpus. Linda York Leach estimated that there were at least 8 albums of 60 folios each, however it has also been estimated that there were as many as 19 albums (Mughal and other Indian paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, London, 1995, pp.377 and 380). It seems very likely that our folio comes from this wider corpus of former imperial album folios. Further supporting this is the number '60' written in black ink below the ascription to the artist Bishan Das. Nearly all of the original 17th century paintings in the later albums include foliation numbers, typically in the gold border separating the inner borders and outer margins (Leach, op.cit., p.374).
A folio from the Nasir al-Din Shah album with comparable margins formerly in the collection of Toby Falk was sold in these Rooms 27 October 2023, lot 1. Whilst a painting attributable to Bishan Das illustrating a page from the Garshaspnama was sold in these Rooms 31 March 2022, lot 60.