Details
Portrait of the elephant Khusikhan
Mughal, circa 1650
gouache heightened with gold on paper, the dark grey elephant with pink ears and trunk stands in profile wearing a red and blue gold-embroidered blanket with gold fringe while gold chains adorn his head, neck, belly, feet and rump, his short tusks are also decorated with gold, gold inscription cartouche with red nasta'liq stating the name, green ground, inner gold painted flowering vine border, gold and coloured minor borders and rules, mounted in the eighteenth century as an album leaf with gold flora and fauna with one building, (some flaking and creasing, ivory leaf with some retouching), verso with a caligraphic panel of black nasta'liq within gold clouds, in dark blue borders within gold rules, gold painted meandering vine outer borders on blue and beige, mounted on leaf painted with deer, tigers and other animals in foliage in gold on a blue ground, framed and glazed
miniature 12¼ x 17¾in. (32.3 x 45.5cm.)
album leaf 13½ x 18in. (31.7 x 45.8cm.)
Mughal, circa 1650
gouache heightened with gold on paper, the dark grey elephant with pink ears and trunk stands in profile wearing a red and blue gold-embroidered blanket with gold fringe while gold chains adorn his head, neck, belly, feet and rump, his short tusks are also decorated with gold, gold inscription cartouche with red nasta'liq stating the name, green ground, inner gold painted flowering vine border, gold and coloured minor borders and rules, mounted in the eighteenth century as an album leaf with gold flora and fauna with one building, (some flaking and creasing, ivory leaf with some retouching), verso with a caligraphic panel of black nasta'liq within gold clouds, in dark blue borders within gold rules, gold painted meandering vine outer borders on blue and beige, mounted on leaf painted with deer, tigers and other animals in foliage in gold on a blue ground, framed and glazed
miniature 12¼ x 17¾in. (32.3 x 45.5cm.)
album leaf 13½ x 18in. (31.7 x 45.8cm.)