Page 41 - Bonhams March 22 2022 Indian and Himalayan Art NYC

312

PROPERTY FROM THE ASBJORN LUNDE FOUNDATION
312
A PORTRAIT OF A NOBLEMAN FROM A POLIER ALBUM Miniatures in the India Office Library, 1981, p.412, no.107), and
PROVINCIAL MUGHAL, FAIZABAD OR LUCKNOW, CIRCA 1776 also in the British Museum (see Martin, The Miniature Paintings and
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper; the painting (recto) and Painters of Persia, India, and Turkey from the 8th-18th Century, 1912,
calligraphy page (verso) laid on an album page with painted floral nos.187A & B, and for others in the group nos.184-97), that may have
borders; the recto lower border numbered, ‘30’. served as inspiration for the present lot.
Image: 8 1/2 x 4 5/8 in. (21.5 x 11.6 cm);
Folio: 15 x 10 1/2 in.(38 x 26.7 cm) The verso’s calligraphy page, with the last line of an unidentified poem
copied by Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi, is dated 981 (equivalent
$8,000 - 12,000 to 1573-4 CE). Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shihabi was a famous 16th-
century calligrapher, mentioned in several literary sources as a great
master of nasta’liq script. Bayani records him as the son of Khwajah
Executed in the refined nim qalim (‘half pen’) style, this reserved Ishaq Shihabi Siyavashani, who was Mayor of Herat at the time of the
portrait of an unknown courtier fits into the corpus of Mughal copies capture of the city by the Uzbeks in 935 (1528-9 CE). He was taken
that Mihr Chand and his atelier produced for their patron, Antoine to Bukhara together with his family and other artists, including the
Louis Henri Polier (1741–95). For further discussion on the Polier celebrated Mir ‘Ali, who took on Mahmud as a pupil (Bayani, Ahval wa
albums, see lot 311 in this sale. atar-i hwusniwisan, vol.3, 1969, pp.876-80; Minorsky, Calligraphers
and Painters, 1959, p.131; Adamova and Bayani, Persian Painting,
With the body incomplete and only the head finished, this work follows 2015, pp.421-3).
a genre of formal portraiture of Mughal officials and ministers found in
the imperial ateliers of the 17th century. The well-defined structure of Provenance:
the sitter’s ear and creased brow, along with his narrow, possibly tired Collection of Asbjorn Lunde (1927-2017), New York, by 1988
eyes, may reflect the stress and intensity of life at court. Compare with (Probably acquired from Maggs Bros. Ltd., London, 23 February 1967)
closely related portraits of Islam Khan Rumi ascribed to Chitarman in
the Johnson Collection at the British Library (Falk and Archer, Indian

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