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Lot Essay
Dalil Khan, a Rohilla Pashtun, rallied the forces of emperor Aurangzeb during his invasion of the Deccan of 1686 with his own troops. He rose to become a vizier and subadar, governor, of the Deccan. This portrait of Dalil Khan in middle age, may have been executed very shortly before or after the Mughal take-over of the central province. A portrait of the vizier at an older age is now kept at Rijksmuseum (inv.no. RP-T-00-3186-17).
The high quality of this portrait suggests an attribution to Ruknuddin, the Mughal trained artist, who was a leading master in the Bikaner atelier, during the reign of Maharaja Anup Singh in the late 17th century. Our portrait finds close comparison with another portrait known to be by the hand of Ruknuddin, where the subject, Ratan Singh Rathore, is depicted dressed in a similar white jama, sword and shield visible from behind, with a dagger tucked into his cummerbund, painted on a pale green ground (Sotheby’s, London, Arts of the Islamic World, 9 April 2014, lot 71).
The salmon border with faint gilt floral decoration is comparable with borders of other works which have been attributed to Ruknuddin. There is a ragamala folio in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Andrew Topsfield (ed.), Court Painting in Rajasthan, Mumbai, 2000, pg.59, ill.2) and another example held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Steve Kossak, Indian Court Painting, New York, 1997, pg. 65, no.33) with similar border decoration.
The high quality of this portrait suggests an attribution to Ruknuddin, the Mughal trained artist, who was a leading master in the Bikaner atelier, during the reign of Maharaja Anup Singh in the late 17th century. Our portrait finds close comparison with another portrait known to be by the hand of Ruknuddin, where the subject, Ratan Singh Rathore, is depicted dressed in a similar white jama, sword and shield visible from behind, with a dagger tucked into his cummerbund, painted on a pale green ground (Sotheby’s, London, Arts of the Islamic World, 9 April 2014, lot 71).
The salmon border with faint gilt floral decoration is comparable with borders of other works which have been attributed to Ruknuddin. There is a ragamala folio in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Andrew Topsfield (ed.), Court Painting in Rajasthan, Mumbai, 2000, pg.59, ill.2) and another example held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Steve Kossak, Indian Court Painting, New York, 1997, pg. 65, no.33) with similar border decoration.