The spring month of Chaitra, from a Baramasa series, attributable to Muhammad Afzal, Mughal, circa 1740

gouache heightened with gold on paper, laid down on an album page with plain borders ruled in gold, inscribed in nasta'liq script on inner border 'Chaitra'

Shuja ud-Duala, Nawab of Oudh (r.1754-75)
Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, K.B. (1725-74), Governor of Bengal, as a gift from the Nawab, circa 1765; from the Small Clive Album, previously on long-term loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Christie's, London, 18 December 1968, lot 82
Walter C. Lees, London & Paris (1917-2010)
Christie's, London, 16 July 2010, lot 221

In good overall condition, colours vivid and gold bright, as viewed.
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The album to which this painting once belonged, known as the Small Clive Album, was acquired during Lord Clive's last visit to India between 1765 and 1767, as a gift from Shuju' al-Daula, Nawab of Oudh (r.1754-75). The majority of the album, containing 56 Mughal miniatures of seventeenth-and eighteenth-century origin, was sold by the Earl of Powis (Lord Clive's direct descendant) at Sotheby's in 1956 (Sotheby's, London, 17 January 1956, lot 332A). These were later gifted to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where they remain to this day. However, as is often the case with albums of Indian and Persian miniatures, several leaves had been previously detached, possibly through family bequests, and on 18 December 1968 a group of pages from the same album, some with slightly different borders, was sold at Christie's (lots 66-88, this page lot 82). The first of those bore a Persian inscription that confirmed the Shuju' al-Daula provenance ("Court of Nawab Shuju ud-Daula, Bahadur Jhang", see Christie's, 18 December 1968, p.49, lot 66).

Robert Clive (1725-74), known as 'Clive of India', is recognised as one of the key figures in the history of British India. Beginning in 1744 as an assistant of the East India Company at Fort St. George near Madras, he quickly moved up the ranks having transferred to the army in 1746. After defeating the French Company after a long siege at Arcot in 1751, he became governor in 1755 and won the Battle of Plassey in 1757, which was instrumental in securing India for Britain. He became master of Bengal and retook Calcutta the same year. In 1760, he returned to England for three years, hoping to gain a political position to influence actions taken in India. Setting himself to reform the East India Company and lessen corruption, he went back to the Subcontinent to serve his second and third governorships and became Commander-in-Chief of British India. Although he was subjected to political criticism, he is remembered as 'the heaven-born general', a nickname given by Pitt the Elder for his remarkable leadership. 

The month of Chaitra is the first month of the year in most Indian calendric systems, occurring in March-April after the Spring equinox. The Barahmasa (Songs of the Twelve Months) were emotional poems of yearning linked to the changing contexts of the months and seasons. They provided popular themes for illustrated series all over northern India. For a later version of this composition, attributed to Bikaner, circa 1800, see Bonhams, London, 5 April 2011, lot 270.

The artist Muhammad Afzal is known from a portrait of a princess, whose style and features are close to the present work (British Library, Johnson Album 11,2, see Losty and Roy 2012, p.183, fig.124, Falk and Archer 1981, p.423, no.179), and McInerney comments that his career lasted form circa 1740 to 1780 (McInerney in Schimtz et al. 2002, p.20).