A COUPLE EMBRACING ON A TERRACE, POSSIBLY PRINCE KHURRAM AND MUMTAZ MAHAL
A COUPLE EMBRACING ON A TERRACE, POSSIBLY PRINCE KHURRAM AND MUMTAZ MAHAL
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A COUPLE EMBRACING ON A TERRACE, POSSIBLY PRINCE KHURRAM AND MUMTAZ MAHAL

MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1610-1620

Details
A COUPLE EMBRACING ON A TERRACE, POSSIBLY PRINCE KHURRAM AND MUMTAZ MAHAL
MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1610-1620
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, borders and margins cropped, verso plain, mounted, framed and glazed
7 ¾ x 4 ½in. (19.5 x 11.3cm.)
Provenance
Ex German private collection, formed 1960s

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Lot Essay

In this painting, a young couple lovingly embrace on a terrace whilst being waited on by four highly bejewelled women whilst a fifth plays music to them. The fine clothes of the central couple, the man's beautiful gold-trimmed jama and the woman's golden shawl, suggest their high status and we are likely observing a prince and consort.

The compositional device of placing an important royal figure on a platform set against a bolster in a garden setting, waited on by male or female attendants, was established in the late Akbar period and continues through the 17th century, however intimate Mughal paintings of princes or emperors with their queen or consort are rare. A painting of Nur Jahan entertaining Jahangir and Khurram, circa 1640-50, is in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington (acc.no. F1907.258); a painting done by Balchand in 1633 depicts Shah Shuja on a terrace in an embrace with a lady (Milo Cleveland Beach, The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India 1600-1660, no. 31, p. 98 and 99); and a painting by Bishan Das, circa 1610, probably depicts Parviz on a terrace (J. Bor et al., Gloire des princes Louange des dieux/Patrimoine musical del'Hindoustan duXIVe au XXe siecle, Musee de la Musique, Paris, 2003, pp.80-81, no.39). Another painting of Jahangir on a terrace with ladies, circa 1620-40, was sold Sotheby's London, 5 October 2011, lot 137, and it is particularly compositionally similar to our painting. In that painting like here the background is split vertically with a twisted tree on the left side and a building occupying the right.

Jahangir's sons are the most obvious candidates for the identity of our prince given the style of the painting which suggests a dating of the first quarter of the 17th century. There is a likeness between the man being depicted here and Prince Parviz in a painting by Manohar, circa 1610, in the British Museum (reg.no. 1920,0917,0.2), but it could also depict Khurram in his youth before he wore a full beard (for a painting of Khurram painted to look as he did in 1616 see Prince Khurram departs from Ajmer, by Abid, circa 1635-40, from the Padshahnama, Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 1005025.al and another comparable portrait although slightly younger than he is shown here, British Museum, 1948,1009,0.69).

If the prince is Khurram, this could identify the consort as his beloved Arjumand Banu Begum, Mumtaz Mahal, after whose premature death in 1631 the Taj Mahal was built. Whilst few contemporary portraits of Mumtaz Mahal exist today there is a similar likeness between the consort in our painting and a mirror case with a portrait of Mumtaz Mahal by 'Abid in the Freer Gallery (F2005.4).

Paintings of Khurram and Mumtaz Mahal together are extremely rare and this may be the only one created in their lifetimes. A painting ascribed to Govardhan of the couple, perhaps at their engagement in 1607-08, was sold at Sworders, London, 5 December 2017, lot 272. That painting was dated 1630-40 and in the note Marcus Fraser suggested that the work was produced retrospectively as a celebration of the couple's love following Mumtaz Mahal's tragic death. In that painting the young Khurram, who was fifteen when he married, has but the faintest of facial hair on his upper lip. Our painting shows the Prince with a light moustache that would suggest he is in his late teens or perhaps very early twenties which would support a dating of the second decade to the 17th century.

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