Add Or 3768

Wajid ‘Ali Shah, King of Oudh (1847-56).

By Muhammad Jan of Lucknow, Calcutta, c.1865.

Purchased 20 October 1974.

Accompanied by a Persian inscription: ‘shabihah-i mubarik hazrat vajid ‘ali shah bahadur pish kardah baman dukhtar ‘ali bandi va amir husain musavvir banairah muhammad jan musavvir shahi mutyaburi’ (portrait of King Wajid ‘Ali Shah presented by me, daughter of ‘Ali Bandi and the painter Amir Husain of Banairah, [son or pupil of] Muhammad Jan, Court Painter of Matya Burj), followed by an autograph.

Gouache with gold.

198 by 171 mm.

Wajid ‘Ali Shah is shown wearing an embroidered white muslin jama’, pai’jama’s,’ and slippers with curved toes. He is seated in a European-style arm-chair with his feet on a blue footstool, set on a patterned red carpet. His left hand rests on his knee and his right on the hilt of a sword, in the background is a green draped curtain and a picture of a river scene.

Note: This painting was acquired by Mr Theon Wilkinson in August 1972 at Lucknow from Nawab Mir ‘Abdullah, a descendant (great-nephew) of Wajid ‘Ali Shah. The inscription shows a poor command of Persian which appears to have been written by a grand-daughter of the artist, and is ambiguous.

Wajid ‘Ali Shah was exiled to Calcutta in March 1856 and stayed until his death in 1887 at Matya Burj, a house at Garden Reach overlooking the river. Muhammad Jan (‘Mummoo Jan’) was a court painter to the kings of Oudh and appears to have accompanied Wajid ‘Ali Shah to Calcutta. There is a collection of his drawings at Bharat Kala Bhavan, Benares (M. Archer (1972), no.130). ‘See also’ IO Album 59, no.5435. His son, Mammu Jan junior (d.1934) also worked in Lucknow, and drawings by him dated c.1892-1910 are in the State Museum, Lucknow.