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Lot Essay
Nawab 'Alivardi Khan of Bengal (r. 1740-56) was born the son of a Mughal officer of Turkman descent. He arrived at the court of Murshidabad in 1720 and rose to prominence under Nawab Mushid Quli Khan, both as an able administrator and an efficient military officer. Murshid Quli Khan died in 1727 and was succeeded by a series of incompetent relatives until 1740 when 'Alivardi Khan took control and ruled Bengal until his death. It was during his reign that the city of Lucknow grew in both size and prosperity, something that led Clive of India to compare it to London (Toby Falk and Mildred Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library, London, 1981, pp.192-93). It was also a time during which the Mughal style of portraiture peculiar to Murshidabad evolved.
There are several other known portraits of 'Alivardi Khan, including a court portrait of the Nawab with his two nephews and his grandson in the Victoria & Albert Museum (D.1201-1903; Barbara Schmitz (ed.), After the Great Mughals. Paintings in Delhi and the Regional Courts in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Mumbai, 2002, no.1, pp.34-35).
There are several other known portraits of 'Alivardi Khan, including a court portrait of the Nawab with his two nephews and his grandson in the Victoria & Albert Museum (D.1201-1903; Barbara Schmitz (ed.), After the Great Mughals. Paintings in Delhi and the Regional Courts in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Mumbai, 2002, no.1, pp.34-35).