PORTRAIT OF A MUSLIM COURTIER, ATTRIBUTABLE TO BASAWAN, INDIA, MUGHAL, CIRCA 1580-85

Opaque watercolor on paper, mounted later with borders of marbled and gold-sprinkled paper

Early Mughal Miniature Paintings from Two Private Collections, The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1959
Akbar's India, Art from the Mughal City of Victory, The Asia Society, New York; Harvard University Art Museums; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1985-6

Welch 1959, no.6B, p.139, fig.9, pl.6
Brand and Lowry 1985, cat.52, pp.83, 149

Generally in fair condition. Some small areas of re-touching on face. Some areas of blue shawl are slightly abraded. Some small patches of orange robe are oxidised and pitted. A few small areas of green pigment of background are flaked.
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This is a fine and interesting portrait of a Mughal courtier. Brand and Lowry noted that the courtier's religious affilitation is indicated by the way his jama is tied under his right arm, which was the tradition of Muslim courtiers, as opposed to the Rajput officers who tied their jamas under their left arms (Brand and Lowry 1985, cat.52, p. 149).

Cary Welch had considered this portrait the work of the great Mughal artist Basawan, noting that the frilly ends of the cloak are close to his style. He recorded in a private note that Amina Okada had concurred, comparing the figure to similar ones in the illustrations executed by Basawan in the Victoria and Albert Museum Akbarnama. An examiniation of several such illustrations shows a number of closely comparable figures (see Stronge 2002, pls.33, 34, 35, 41, 49, 50). Another feature which can be associated with Basawan's style is the way he depicts the eyes, which have rather intense white sclera. These can be seen in the present portrait and in the figures in the illustration Tamarusa and Shapur at the Island of Nigar in a royal copy of the Darabnameh (British Library, see Okada 1992, p.76).

For a fuller discussion of the artist Basawan see footnote to lot 90, and Okada 1991a; Okada 1992; Beach 1981, pp.83, 100-102; Verma 1994, pp.83-94; Welch 1985, nos.87, 88, 94, 108, 110; Welch 1961.

A very similar figure of a courtier is in the Fondation Custodia, Paris, (see Custodia 1986, no.6)