Portrait of Sultan ‘Ali Adil Shah II (1656-72)
Bijapur, Deccan, India, circa 1660
Opaque pigments with gold on paper, with unpainted plain border, laid down in a pale blue album page with gold, blue and red rules, verso with ink numbers, lined in card with cotton mesh covering
6 by 4 in.; 15 by 10.5cm. painting
14¾ by 10 ½ in.; 37.4 by 26.7cm. folio
PROVENANCE
Toby Falk (1942-97), Surrey: Christie’s, London, 27 October 2023, lot 58
SUBJECT
The eighth and penultimate sultan of Bijapur, ‘Ali Adil Shah ruled from 1656-72, during a fractious period when his kingdom was threatened from all sides. In the west the increasingly powerful Marathas led by Shivaji were about to act, in the south the Nayaks were activated to recover previously lost territory and the Mughals invaded on the false pretext that the sultan’s lineage was questioned. He repelled these would-be usurpers during his sixteen-year reign but, following his death, the kingdom succumbed and by the end of the century Deccan painting was in terminal decline. In spite of this, the paintings of this period show a remarkable flowering of the Bijapur style and convey a sense of timeless calm in works that display before us a court life of considerable languor.