AN EQUESTRIAN PORTRAIT OF A LUCKNOW NAWAB

Lucknow, Avadh (Oudh), Northern India, mid to late 19th century

Opaque pigments and gold on European watermarked laid paper, the vertical composition portraying a heavily bejewelled and ornate prince on a dappled steed, his long white tunic embellished with embroidered golden borders, his encrusted crown reminiscent of European royal paraphernalia with a black heron aigrette on the front, the horse harness heavily encrusted and the purple saddle cloth with silver thread embroidery, the scene set against an empty green natural landscape with a high blue horizon, within black rules, an undeciphered black ink mark on the bottom, mounted on a white cardboard frame, 35.5cm x 24cm excluding the mount.

Provenance: from the late Mark Zebrowski collection (1944 - 1999)

The portrait can be considered a memorandum to Lucknow's belle epoque: the lavishly dressed and heavily bejewelled prince looks outward at the beholder with a mixture of dandyish carefree attitude, trepidation and uncertainty. His horse, majestic in its appearance, lowers its head in exhaustion, leaving spittle on the grass below, possibly a metaphor of the diminishing forces of the Lucknow Nawabs. It has been suggested that this may even be a youthful portrait of Wajid Ali Shah, last of the Lucknow Nawabs. Wajid Ali Shah (r. 1847-56) was most unfortunate to have ascended the throne at a time when the East India Company was determined to grab the coveted throne of prosperous Awadh (Oudh), which was popularly known as the garden, granary, and queen-province of India. In 1856, the British conspired with hostile elements at court, pensioned him off for incompetence and exiled him to Calcutta for the rest of life. This was one of the factors which led up to the Indian Mutiny in May 1857.