THE CENOTAPHS OF SHAH JAHAN AND MUMTAZ MAHAL
THE CENOTAPHS OF SHAH JAHAN AND MUMTAZ MAHAL
THE CENOTAPHS OF SHAH JAHAN AND MUMTAZ MAHAL
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THE CENOTAPHS OF SHAH JAHAN AND MUMTAZ MAHAL

NORTH INDIA, MID-19TH CENTURY

Details
THE CENOTAPHS OF SHAH JAHAN AND MUMTAZ MAHAL
NORTH INDIA, MID-19TH CENTURY
Charcoal and translucent pigments on watermarked paper, the cenotaphs depicted in profile with a scale bar to the base, in thick black rules with a label identifying them as 'the Tomb of the Begum' and 'the Tomb of the Emperor', the margins and reverse plain, mounted
Painting 25 ¼ x 18 ½in. (64 x 47cm.); folio 21 1⁄8 x 27 ½in. (53.8 x 69.9cm.)
Provenance
Flora Mure-Campbell, Marchioness of Hastings (1780-1840)
Ex-collection of the Marquesses of Bute
Paul F Walter Collection, USA
Visions of India, Christie's London, Visions of India, May 1995, lot 8
With Simon Ray
Anon. Sale, Sotheby’s London, 27 October 2020, lot 439
Private UK Collection
Literature
Simon Ray, Indian & Islamic Works of Art, exhibition catalogue, London, 2012, nos.87 and 88, pp. 190-191

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Lot Essay

These two careful architectural studies show the side elevations of the cenotaphs in the Taj Mahal of Shah Jahan (d.1666) and Arjumand Banu Begum (d.1631), known as Mumtaz Mahal. The white marble cenotaphs are finely inlaid with semi-precious stones to depict floral studies, many of which are botanically accurate (Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj Mahal, London, 2006, p. 171). Inlaid in black on the side of Mumtaz Mahal’s tomb is the Qur’an LXXXIII, sura al-Mutaffifin, verses 22-28.

Each of these studies is numbered in pencil in the upper right corner and they would have originally formed two studies from a much larger set of views of the Taj Mahal and other Mughal monuments painted by local artists. The Mughal monuments of Agra were hugely popular amongst the British before they established themselves in the city in the early 19th century and the creation of these albums of accurate studies was necessitated by the need to conserve the monuments. When the Court of Directors requested plans to be sent to London from Calcutta of the Mughal monuments requiring repair, it seems an album of drawing such as the two here was sent (J.P. Losty, “The Master Artists of Delhi and Agra”, in W. Dalrymple (ed.), Forgotten Masters, London, 2019, p.149). A similar study of the top of the cenotaph of Shah Jahan was sold in these Rooms, 24 October 2024, lot 177.

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