Foster 837

Arthur Conolly (1807-c.1842). c.1838 or 1839

Half-length portrait showing Conolly in Persian dress, his right hand on the hilt of his dagger. A bearded figure, he is shown against a brownish-black background wearing a red - brown turban and a brown robe.

14 by 12 ins (35.5 by 30.5 cms)

Bequeathed by Mr. S.P. Macnaghten, June 1982.

Reproduced: P. Rohatgi, Portraits in the India office Library and Records (London, 1983), frontispiece.

Conolly served in the 6th Native Light Cavalry; Cornet, 1823; Lieutenant, 1825; Captain, 1838. Following sick leave in England in 1829 he returned to India via Central Asia. On the way he endeavoured to reach Khiva in the guise of a merchant selling furs and shawls but the caravan was plundered and he was forced to return to Astrabad, eventually reaching India in January 1831 via Meshed, Herat and Kandahar. Conolly’s adventures were published in 1834 as ‘A Journey to Northern India.’ In that year he was appointed Assistant to the Government Agent in Rajputana. While on leave in 1838 he proposed to the Home Government that he should be allowed to negotiate with the Uzbeg chiefs to stop the carrying off into slavery of Russian and Persian subjects and thereby remove Russian pretexts for advancing into Central Asia. He was granted expenses for the journey and from Calcutta he was sent to Kabul on 11th February, 1839. Arriving there in the spring of 1840, he joined the staff of the British Envoy to Shah Shuja‘, Sir William Macnaghten. He left again as envoy to Khiva in September and proceeded to Bukhara to negotiate for the release of Lt.-Colonel Charles Stoddart who had been imprisoned there by Amir Nasirulla.

On his arrival he was seized and, with Stoddart, imprisoned under appalling conditions and executed, probably on 17th June, 1842. (J.W. Kaye ‘Lives of the Indian officers,’ London, 1904, Vol. II pp.93-203).

This portrait may have been made in England in 1838 during Conolly’s leave; alternatively it could have been made in Kabul in 1840 by James Atkinson, Surgeon to the Army of the Indus, who made a water-colour portrait of Conolly in July-August of that year which is now in the National Portrait Gallery. Atkinson was a skilled amateur artist in both watercolours and oils.

Conolly’s sister was married to the brother of Sir William Macnaghten (1793-1841) who was murdered at Kabul during the Afghan War of 1841. The painting remained with the Macnaghten family until it was bequeathed to the India Office Library and Records.