Add Or 1790

Plan of the Red Fort, Delhi.

By Nidhamal, Mughal, c.1750.

The inscription on the reverse suggests that the picture was in the collection of Robert Orme who was in India from 1742 to 1758, although it is not included in Hill (1916). It was presumably acquired by the Library with the Orme Collection in 1801.

Signed in Persian: ‘‘amal-i nidhamal’ (the work of Nidhamal); mistranslated in an old English hand: ‘Jurisdiction of Nuddha Mull’; inscribed incorrectly on reverse: ‘Orme. Fort’ (‘Palace) at Agra, MS’; numbered ‘39’; and: ‘No.21, Agra fort.’ Many of the buildings and precincts have been labelled in Urdu and English, eg. ‘angur-i bagh’;’ Angoory Baug’;’ Grape Garden’;’ bagh-i gulabi’;’ Baug Golauby’;’ Rose Garden.’

Gouache; laid down on paper and repaired with gauze.

800 by 735 mm; page 835 by 765 mm.

The walls and gates of the fort, identifiable as Delhi from the buildings present, are depicted with the surrounding moat and river. Outside are gardens, mosques and palaces, but the central area within the fort is left unpainted.

Note: Nidhamal was a Mughal artist who worked at Delhi c.1730-60, but it appears that he moved to Faizabad or Lucknow c.1760-70. A reference to him occurs in an undated letter written by Sankaraja Satyadeva, a clerk of the Hingne Daftar or office of the Maratha envoy at Delhi, to Nana Farnavis in answer to a letter of 18 September 1772 (‘see Itihasa Sangraha Aitihasik Tippane,’ Poona, September 1908, pt I, no.11). He refers to a request for pictures of Hindu divinities by Mughal artists such as Nidhamal, but states that none are available in Delhi where no Hindu artists are to be found, most of them having migrated to Lucknow and other towns for lack of patronage. Other pictures inscribed by Nidhamal include: Muhammad Shah with Sa‘adat Khan and officers, Binney Collection (Binney (1973), no.77); an equestrian portrait, Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, 15-257; lovers on a terrace, Bharat Kala Bhavan, Benares, no.684; lady escorted to bed at night, Sotheby, 11 December 1956, lot 59; a village scene, Los Angeles County Museum.