Page 135 - ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLDS Carpets, Ceramics Objects, Christie's London Oct..27, 2022

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A TIGER HUNT NAWAB ASAF AL-DAWLA AND HIS ENTOURAGE ON
LUCKNOW, INDIA, CIRCA 1810 ELEPHANTS HUNT A TIGER ATTACKING A HORSEMAN
LUCKNOW, INDIA, CIRCA 1810
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, set between a black, yellow Executed in Lucknow in the early nineteenth century, this painting and that
and white border with black rules, the reverse plain of the following lot, show the strong European influence which artists of the Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, set between a black, white Likely by the same hand as the previous lot, this painting depicts Asaf
Painting 14¬ x 22qin. (37 x 57cm.); folio 16æ x 24æin. (42.8 x 62.8cm.) period were subjected to. The death of Nawab Shuja al-Dawla (r.1754-75) also and yellow border, pasted onto card, the reverse plain al-Dawla, recognisable under his blue parasol, taking part in a tiger hunt
Painting 15æ x 23¿in. (40 x 58.7 cm.); folio 17¡ x 24¬ in. (44.2 x 62.5 cm.) alongside his courtiers. The European figures on the right can be associated
£60,000-80,000 US$69,000-91,000 brought an end to a period of energetic court patronage in Faizabad. While
€69,000-91,000 Shuja al-Dawla absorbed many artists leaving the declining Mughal court, his £60,000-80,000 US$69,000-91,000 with those depicted in Johann Zoffany’s painting Colonel Mordaunt’s Cock
successor Asaf al-Dawla (r.1775-97) was more keen to patronise European €69,000-91,000 Match’, now in the Tate Gallery, London. The figure in the red jacket, for
artists like Johann Zoffany and Ozias Humphry who came to his court in example, could very well be Colonel Mordaunt himself. Both the present
PROVENANCE:
Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Dundas Alexander (1880-1948) and thence by Lucknow (S. Markel and T. Bindu Gude, India’s Fabled City: the Arts of Courtly PROVENANCE: lot and Zoffany’s celebrated painting are reminders of the cosmopolitan
descent Lucknow, Los Angeles, 2011, p.182). Sensitive to changing tastes, Indian court Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Dundas Alexander (1880-1948) and thence by atmosphere which prevailed at the Lucknow court in the late eighteenth
London trade by 2015 artists began painting scenes familiar to a European clientele in watercolour. descent century.
London trade by 2015
The present lot has much in common with the aquatint plates in particularly
Thomas Williamson and Samuel Howitt’s Oriental Field Sports, first published
in 1807. A very similar composition in a more verdant landscape is in the
collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (M. Archer, Company Paintings:
Indian Paintings of the British Period, London, 1992, p.124).

132 In addition to the hammer price, a Buyer’s Premium (plus VAT) is payable. Other taxes and/or an Artist Resale Royalty 133
fee are also payable if the lot has a tax or λ symbol. Check Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of this catalogue.