SHAH 'ALAM II (1728 - 1806) ON THE BANKS OF THE YAMUNA
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION
Provincial Mughal school, Northern India, 19th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition depicting Shah 'Alam II, the sixteenth emperor of the Mughal Empire, seated on a green summer floor spread on a palatial terrace overlooking the banks of the Yamuna river, a young white-clad attendant behind him with a fly-whisk, in front of the emperor an emissary or courtier of high rank with yellow boots and an encrusted dagger, delivering a note, the scene set within black rules, the recto plain, backed onto a later paper with bold nasta'liq inscriptions, 18.4cm x 13.6cm.

For a comparable painting, presenting the same arrangement and subject, please see the example in the British Library (inv. no. Add.Or.5694) published in J. P. Losty and M. Roy, Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire, 2012, p. 173, fig. 114.

Dimensions: 18.4cm x 13.6cm