MURSHIDABAD, INDIA, CIRCA 1790

Despite an apparent lack of urgency on the part of the attendant, the letter is most likely being delivered to Nawab Muhammad Riza Khan, Naib Nazim of Bengal between 1756 and 1775. A painting which is likely the pendant to ours depicting the Nawab seated on a lacquered wooden chair and smoking a huqqa is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and was formerly in the collections of Robert Alderman and Dr Mark Zebrowski and Alvin O. Bellak (Acc.no. 2004-149-70; Skelton 1982, p.51, no. 92; Mason 2001, no.78, p.184). Of near identical size to the present paining, the Philadelphia painting shares the same sparse composition, cool grey palette and woven grass matted floor.