Equestrian portrait of Bahadur Shah Alamgir (1643-1712)
Mughal India, circa 1700
Opaque pigments with gold on paper, with red and white rules and a red margin, laid down in a reduced album page; a panel of calligraphy on the verso
10 ¼ by 7 2/3 in.; 26 by 18.7 cm. painting
12 4/5 by 8 ¾ in.; 32.5 by 22.2 cm. folio
PROVENANCE
Peter Dineley (1939-2018), London and the West Country: Bonhams, London, 2 April 2009, lot 138
Private collection, Germany, 2009-26
INSCRIPTIONS
On the border, an identification in Persian:
‘Bahadur Shah’
On the verso, a Persian quatrain in praise of an emperor (shahanshah). The poem contains a date in the form of an abjad chronogram as well as in numerals A.H. 1137 / 1724-5 A.D.
Signed on the lower right margin:
khana-zad rai jugal kishor
‘The one born to the house (khana-zad), Rai Jugal Kishore’
In a green landscape under a polychrome sky, the emperor sits upright on a fine bay stallion flanked by two courtiers brandishing peacock morchals. He is depicted nimbate, with an appropriate grey beard as he was sixty-four when he ascended the throne. Dressed in elaborate court costume comprising a plumed, gem-set turban, long green jama and purple over-coat of gold brocade, he holds the reins in one hand and a spear in the other. His steed has braided mane, henna’d forelocks and wears a gold saddle-cloth embroidered with flowers.
SUBJECT
The second son of Emperor Aurangzeb, Shah Alam I, became the eighth Mughal Emperor, known as or Bahadur Shah I and ruled from 1707-12. Having rebelled against his father, in 1670 and again ten years later, his relationship deteriorated further when he was less than competent in various provincial governorships. This culminated in what was considered treason during a Deccan campaign in 1687 and led his father to imprison him and his two sons.
Following the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the emperor’s failure to designate an heir led to a fractious and disastrous period as all three sons sought to claim the throne. With the defeat and death of one brother, Azam Shah, at the battle of Jajau in 1707, Bahadur Shah I ascended the throne. Plunged into battles in an effort to annex the major Rajput kingdoms, as well as rebelling the Sikhs in Punjab, the following year he killed his remaining brother Kam Bakhsh in a battle near Hyderabad. Bahadur Shah I died at Lahore in 1712 and was succeeded by his son, Jahandar Shah, who became, briefly, the ninth Mughal emperor.