Johnson 7,12

A prince seated on a boulder.

[Circle of Muhammad ‘Ali. and Farrukh Husayn Beg]

Mughal, c.1610-15.

Richard Johnson Collection. Purchased 1807.

Numbered 29 in Persian inventory note.

Gouache with gold; on an album page with inner blue gilt-decorated border and outer gilt-sprinkled margin.

111 by 71 mm; page 413 by 290 mm.

Reproduced: Losty and Leach (1998), pl. 6.

The prince, reading from a page of writing, perhaps a letter, is dressed in a cyclamen pink jama and green trousers with a gold turban and ‘patka’. A chestnut saluki hound lies at his feet, and blossoming shrubs are on either side.

Note: Muhammad ‘Ali appears to have worked in close association with Farrukh Beg, both artists showing tendencies in their work which suggest a relationship with painting of the Deccan. He is known by his inscription on a female portrait in the Binney Collection (Sotheby, 11 April 1972, lot 111; Binney (1973), no.123; Beach (1978), no.49), which confirms attributions inscribed on the picture of a youth reading, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington (Ettinghausen (1961), pl.9), and on the portrait of a poet in a garden, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Marteau and Vever (1913), II, pl.XIX; Schulz (1914), pl.138; Coomaraswamy (1929), no.119, pl.LXX; Coomaraswamy (1930), no.LVI, pl.XXXV; Skelton (1957) fig.17; Barrett and Gray (1963), 125; Welch (1978), pl.20; Beach (1978), no.48). A picture of a prince on horseback, formerly in the Rothschild Collection (Skelton (1957), fig.9; Falk (1976), no.92) is also attributed to Muhammad ‘Ali. For the present portrait the characteristic drawing of the fingers and the hands, and the design of the blossom in the background are features which, when compared with the Boston poet and the Binney portrait can be used to substantiate the attribution.

[As in the known paintings of Muhammad 'Ali, the central solitary pensive figure is framed between sprays of flowering shrubs, and flowers are scattered over the ground. The tight control of line, however, exhibited by our artist is used to project the volumes of the prince’s body. Unlike the known work of Muhammad ‘Ali, whose figures are calligraphically outlined but are essentially flat, this prince is a three-dimensional figure. In this his portrait resembles more the work of Farrukh Beg, the Persian artist who spent formative years in the Mughal court studio and who then appears to have worked for Ibrahim II at the Bijapur court, where he was known as Farrukh Husain and appears to have painted the famous equestrian portrait of his royal master now in the St. Petersburg Album. When compared with Muhamad ‘Ali’s predilection for fuller faces, the narrow oval of the face and the curve of the further cheek in our painting rather resemble the face of Ibrahim II in the Bijapur painting,. There is also a similar dark background with gold outlining of the rocks contrasted with the brilliant pinks of the gown. Although it could be argued that our young prince is the work of Farrukh Beg after he had returned to the Mughal court from the Deccan and curbed his extravagant Deccani tendencies a little, it is more likely to have been another Mughal artist working under his influence.]