Page 104 - Indian and Himalayan Art, March 15, 2017 Sotheby's NYC

301 The Mughal Emperor Humayun - father of the future Emperor
Akbar - seated outdoors in a hilly landscape, kneeling on a
PROPERTY FROM THE LANIER COLLECTION
oral-patterned carpet and petting his hunting hawk. In an
THE EMPEROR HUMAYUN ON A HUNTING encampment with a lapis, red and white tented canopy with
EXPEDITION
India, Early Mughal (possibly at Kabul), oral and arabesque designs and a brilliant orange-vermilion
circa 1550-55 fringe. A courtier stands with another raptor on his gloved
hand - he wears a distinctive heron-feather plume (a kalgi)
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper projecting from his turban - as does a groom as well as the
image: 8½ by 5¼ in. (20.3 by 12.7 cm) Emperor’s horse. The Emperor’s face and pointed beard are
folio: 9 by 5¾ in. (22.8 by 12.7 cm)
nely delineated in black ink and are not idealized as is seen in
PROVENANCE later Mughal depictions of him.
Acquired mid-1980’s
Our painting marks the discovery of a rare early work executed
$ 15,000-20,000 in a proto-Mughal style from the reign of Humayun (r. 1531-40
and 1555-56) likely painted either during the Emperor’s exile
at Kabul (prior to his nal return to India) or just after that in
Delhi circa 1555. It is a remarkable addition to the very small
corpus of paintings extant from that period.

The manner of costume and gure depictions with cone-
shaped turban styles are distinctive to the reign of Humayun.
The nim qalam (partly-painted) stylized rock formations tinged
with mauve, lapis arabesques, shapes and colors of the tree
blossoms at the upper left as well as the monochromatic
natural bu background - all suggest a date in the Mid
Sixteenth Century. Our painting shows in uences from
the Bukhara school. Some repainting as has been noted
as in other works known from this period, see John Seyller
“Recycled Images: Overpainting in Early Mughal Art,” in Sheila
Canby (ed.), Humayun’s Garden Party: Princes of the House
of Timur and Early Mughal Painting, Mumbai, 1994, pp.69-76.
Applied onto a trimmed later backing with yellow and red outer
ruled lines.

For an interesting comparison see ‘Prince Akbar and
Noblemen Hawking’ attributed to the artist ‘Abd al-Samad
circa 1555-58, lent by the Ralph and Cathy Benkaim Collection
to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibition “Master Painters
of India, 1100-1900.” This work depicts a young Prince Akbar
and was probably executed a few years after our own painting
- it does share many characteristics like the nim qalam
treatment of mauve-tinged boulders and rock formations
(possibly from the same hand as the landscape in our painting)
with contrasting orange-vermilion ourishes as well as the
general preference for the subject of hunting.

Several paintings from the Fitzwilliam Album in the Collection
of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge o er insight into
the development of early Mughal painting - from its origins
in Persia (Bukhara) through the reign of Humayun to the
beginning of the Akbar period, see M. C. Beach, Early Mughal
Painting, New York, 1987, pp. 17-49.

102 SOTHEBY’S