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Lot Essay
It was only with the emergence of the Mughal art school and more precisely after the start of the 17th century that flowers became the subject of paintings. The first of the Mughal emperors, Babur had an interest in the flowers of India which he had described in his memoirs. Following his ancestor's taste for flowers, Jahangir (r.1605-1627) wrote the following verses after a visit to Kashmir in 1620: "it was broad, and plain after plain, and mead after mead, of flowers. Sweet-smelling plants of narcissus, violet, and strange flowers that grow in this country, came to view [..]" (Som Prakash Verma, ed., Floral and Fauna in Mughal Art, Mumbai, 1999, p.110). Jahangir mentions more than a hundred flower paintings by the artist Mansur of which onnly four seems to have survived. One of his surviving paintings is a study of tulipa clusiana, probably the same species as the flo wer depicted here. It is dated circa 1621.
The genre has been fashionable throughout the second quarter of the 17th century. The Dara Shikoh album, in the India office library contains numerous floral studies, most dated circa 1635 and attributed to various artists such as Muhammad Khan.
An artist identified as The Master of the Borders, painted Tulips and Iris in a manner so close to that of the present work, particularly the delicate depiction of the curling leaves rising around the stem, that he could be the author of our tulipia clusiana (Stuart Cary Welch, India, Art and Culture, 1300-1900, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1985, cat.161, p.245-246). Although the two floral sprays flanking the pink tulip are executed in a more static and systematic style, it is possible that the Master of the Borders drew our tulip whilst pupils executed the background elements. As Welch writes in his description of the published album page of Tulips and Iris, this painting of a life-breathing tulipia clusiana "far transcends botany".
The Master of the Borders' hand has been identified in numerous borders of calligraphies and miniatures, including those of Shah Jahan on the Peacock Throne. The artist paints in a very personal idiom with potent colours. His career seems to have started in Deccan where he was recognized by the Khan-i Khana 'Abd al-Rahim. He then worked for Sultan 'Abdullah Qutb Shah of Golconda in 1629-1630 before joining the staff of Shah Jahan who as prince spent many years in the Deccan.
The genre has been fashionable throughout the second quarter of the 17th century. The Dara Shikoh album, in the India office library contains numerous floral studies, most dated circa 1635 and attributed to various artists such as Muhammad Khan.
An artist identified as The Master of the Borders, painted Tulips and Iris in a manner so close to that of the present work, particularly the delicate depiction of the curling leaves rising around the stem, that he could be the author of our tulipia clusiana (Stuart Cary Welch, India, Art and Culture, 1300-1900, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1985, cat.161, p.245-246). Although the two floral sprays flanking the pink tulip are executed in a more static and systematic style, it is possible that the Master of the Borders drew our tulip whilst pupils executed the background elements. As Welch writes in his description of the published album page of Tulips and Iris, this painting of a life-breathing tulipia clusiana "far transcends botany".
The Master of the Borders' hand has been identified in numerous borders of calligraphies and miniatures, including those of Shah Jahan on the Peacock Throne. The artist paints in a very personal idiom with potent colours. His career seems to have started in Deccan where he was recognized by the Khan-i Khana 'Abd al-Rahim. He then worked for Sultan 'Abdullah Qutb Shah of Golconda in 1629-1630 before joining the staff of Shah Jahan who as prince spent many years in the Deccan.