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Lot Essay
During the reign of Akbar (r.1556-1605), examples of European art first arrived at the Mughal court brought back with the mission sent to Goa in 1575. Artists in the imperial atelier studied, absorbed and adapted European engravings that had been introduced by Jesuit missionaries. This interest in European imagery is also evident in the Deccan. The present drawing appears to be a copy after a European engraving. It depicts a typical Indian subject, a wandering ascetic, but is executed in a European manner. The face, hair and robe have a distinctly European influence, while the fan, the sticks and the pouch containing rice for the ascetic are rooted in the Indian tradition. Studies of ascetics, such as the present example, were a means of demonstrating the artist’s mastery of the human figure as well as the modeling of drapery.
This adaptation of European imagery by Indian artists became a distinct genre within the Mughal repertoire during Akbar’s reign. Compare the current lot with the slightly earlier, well-known drawing of The Dervish, circa 1590, by the Mughal artist Basawan in the Musée Guimet, Paris (illustrated in A. Okada, Indian Miniatures of the Mughal Court, Paris, 1992, fig. 95, no. 92). Basawan’s dervish, like our fakir, is shown with a dog by his side as dogs often accompanied and protected ascetics during their solitary wanderings around India. Basawan’s penchant for illustrating dervishes led him to make them the subject of independent drawings and miniatures as well as part of larger illustrated imperial manucripts. For examples of other Mughal drawings inspired by European prints and related figures of ascetics, see ibid., nos. 84, 85, 87, 89, 90, 92-95 and a drawing from the Stuart Cary Welch collection, now in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard Art Museums (no. 2009.202.79).
This adaptation of European imagery by Indian artists became a distinct genre within the Mughal repertoire during Akbar’s reign. Compare the current lot with the slightly earlier, well-known drawing of The Dervish, circa 1590, by the Mughal artist Basawan in the Musée Guimet, Paris (illustrated in A. Okada, Indian Miniatures of the Mughal Court, Paris, 1992, fig. 95, no. 92). Basawan’s dervish, like our fakir, is shown with a dog by his side as dogs often accompanied and protected ascetics during their solitary wanderings around India. Basawan’s penchant for illustrating dervishes led him to make them the subject of independent drawings and miniatures as well as part of larger illustrated imperial manucripts. For examples of other Mughal drawings inspired by European prints and related figures of ascetics, see ibid., nos. 84, 85, 87, 89, 90, 92-95 and a drawing from the Stuart Cary Welch collection, now in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard Art Museums (no. 2009.202.79).