PROBABLY BIJAPUR, DECCAN, LAST QUARTER 17TH CENTURY/18TH CENTURY

The inscription on the reverse may refer to the image on the next page in the original album. The nobleman on the left was probably a Mughal officer serving in Aurangzeb’s armies in the Deccan. For comparable portraits of Ali Adil Shah II of Bijapur, see M. Zebrowski, Deccani Painting, London, 1983, ill. nos. 107-110, pp. 140-142. The distinctive foliage and floral carpet with scrolling tendrils are also reminiscent of Deccani painting from this period.