Lot Essay
This portrait is traditionally attributed to Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) but has been reattributed to Charles Smith by Mildred Archer. Comparison with the portrait of the Nawab painted by Zoffany in 1784, and now in the India Office Library and Records, confirms this reattribution (for the India Office portrait see Archer, op. cit.., pl. 89 and also Mary Webster, Johan Zoffany 1733-1810, exhibition catalogue, London National Portrait Gallery, January-March 1977, p. 76, no. 102, repr.). The Zoffany attribution is however an old one, given on an old label on the back of the picture and, more significantly, in a letter from Sir John Shore to his wife from Lucknow, 8 February 1797: 'This day I had a private audience with the Nabob'. Having refused a large gift of money he was offered a picture 'as a memorial of his friendship...I took one, about 15 inches square, done by Zoffany (not set in diamonds), which is a strong resemblance to the Nabob; and for which, to say the least, I would not give two-pence. I pleased him' (reprinted Manners and Williamson, loc. cit.).
Charles Smith's stay in Lucknow, capital of Oudh, lasted from 20 February until October 1786 and overlapped that of Zoffany who was there in the summer of 1784 and again from summer 1785 until November 1786. Smith went with a recommendation from John Macpherson, who had succeeded Hastings as Governor General in 1785, and a commission to paint a number of portraits of the Nawab and his court. This picture, however, was clearly painted for the Nawab himself, being given by him to Sir John Shore just over ten years later.
Asaf-ud-daula (died 1797) succeeded his father Shuja-ud-daula as Nawab Wazir of Oudh in 1775 and moved the capital back from Faizabad to Lucknow which he developed with great extravagance, attracting poets, philosophers, calligraphers, artists, including Europeans, and adventurers. Lewis Ferdinand Smith described him in a letter of 1 March 1795 to a friend: 'Asaf-ud-Dowlah is mild in manners, generous to extravagance, and engaging in his conduct, but he has no great mental power...He is fond of lavishing his treasures on gardens, palaces, horses, elephants, and above all, on fine European guns, lustres, mirrors, and all sorts of European manufacturers, more especially...to the elegant paintings...of a Lorraine and a Zoffani... Asaf-ud-Dowlah is absurdly extravagant and ridiculously curious; he has no taste and less judgement' - hence perhaps his misattribution of the picture (quoted from Webster, op. cit., and Archer, loc. cit., pp. 144-5).
Charles Smith's stay in Lucknow, capital of Oudh, lasted from 20 February until October 1786 and overlapped that of Zoffany who was there in the summer of 1784 and again from summer 1785 until November 1786. Smith went with a recommendation from John Macpherson, who had succeeded Hastings as Governor General in 1785, and a commission to paint a number of portraits of the Nawab and his court. This picture, however, was clearly painted for the Nawab himself, being given by him to Sir John Shore just over ten years later.
Asaf-ud-daula (died 1797) succeeded his father Shuja-ud-daula as Nawab Wazir of Oudh in 1775 and moved the capital back from Faizabad to Lucknow which he developed with great extravagance, attracting poets, philosophers, calligraphers, artists, including Europeans, and adventurers. Lewis Ferdinand Smith described him in a letter of 1 March 1795 to a friend: 'Asaf-ud-Dowlah is mild in manners, generous to extravagance, and engaging in his conduct, but he has no great mental power...He is fond of lavishing his treasures on gardens, palaces, horses, elephants, and above all, on fine European guns, lustres, mirrors, and all sorts of European manufacturers, more especially...to the elegant paintings...of a Lorraine and a Zoffani... Asaf-ud-Dowlah is absurdly extravagant and ridiculously curious; he has no taste and less judgement' - hence perhaps his misattribution of the picture (quoted from Webster, op. cit., and Archer, loc. cit., pp. 144-5).