Beschreibung:

The Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II (reg. 1759-1806) in durbar, with noblemen, attendants, and the British Resident, Archibald Seton
Delhi, circa 1800gouache and gold on paper, nasta'liq inscriptions in gold above the Emperor's and the courtiers' heads, laid down on an album page with stylised floral inner borders, outer borders with birds, peacocks and deer amidst foliage in gold
painting 250 x 160 mm.; album page 390 x 265 mm.FootnotesProvenance
The collection of the late Terence Mullaly (1927-2020), critic and the art correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in the 1970s and 1980s.
The various figures and their identifying inscriptions are as follows:
Above the Emperor, in the centre:
'The image of His Majesty Shah 'Alam Padshah'.
On the right:
'Muhammad Akbar Shah', his son, the future Emperor Akbar II (reg. 1806-37).
Further to the right:
'Jaji [Haji] Khwas [Khas]'.
Haji Khas is portrayed as an old man amongst a large number of courtiers in a painting of Akbar II in durbar with the British resident Charles Metcalfe, in the Cincinnati Art Museum, attributed to Ghulam Murtaza Khan, circa 1811-15 (illustrated and discussed in W. Dalrymple, Y. Sharma (edd.), Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi 1707-1857, New York 2012, pp. 108-109, no. 32).
On the left of the Emperor, in yellow:
'Shah Nawaz Khan'.
This is most probably Samsam al-Dawlah Shah Nawaz Khan (d. 1758) a historian and minister of Asaf Jah's, who together with 'Abd al-Hayy wrote al-ma'athir wa al-athar, a biography of men who flourished in India from Akbar's time. Here, he is depicted possibly presenting Shah 'Alam with a volume of his book (though presumably, given the date of his death, there is a certain amount of licence being taken by the artist).
He also appears in the painting, signed by Khairallah, dated AH 1212/AD 1797, sold at Sotheby's, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part One: Arts of the Islamic World, 6th April 2011, lot 150 (see below).
'Mr Seton Sahib'
Archibald Seton (d. 1818), the British Resident, 1806-11.
'Sayyid Razi Khan'.
Possibly the father of Muhammad Qasim (a Nawwab of Bengal and a supporter of the East India Company). If so it is therefore appropriate that he stands next to Seton.
The Blind Emperor, Shah Alam II, seems emblematic of the catalogue of gradual but often shocking disasters which overtook the Mughal Empire in the 18th Century. The very throne he sits on here, and in other paintings, was a late 18th Century reconstruction of the famous Peacock Throne, which had been taken to Persia by Nadir Shah after his catastrophic invasion of 1739, which took place when the future emperor was ten years old. Against a background of British encroachment and tribal threats, Shah Alam was blinded at the age of sixty (a ghastly fate which he lamented in a Persian poem) in an act of brutality by the Afghan chieftain Ghulam Qadir, after he had sacked the Mughal treasury in 1788.
In Room for Wonder: Indian Painting during the British Period 1760-1880, New York 1978, p. 102, Cary Welch wrote of the Emperor and of the painting sold in April 2011:
Like an old caged bird, Shah Alam perches in his multi-columned throne, a pastiche replacement for Shah Jahan's. His pathetic, silent isolation contrasts with the carpet's arabesque tangle, sharp as barbed wire. The artist makes us sense the emperor's blindness by emphasising his odd facial angle, closed eye, and his nervous fingering of rosary beads.
Our painting can take its place amongst several late Mughal durbar scenes.
The painting in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IS. 114-1986), attributed to the artist Khairullah by W. Dalrymple and Y. Sharma, (in Princes and Painters, pp. 98-99, no. 25). Muinuddin Muhammad (the future Emperor Akbar II) again sits in a smaller throne. To the left stands a white-bearded courtier, his hands resting on a long staff; the same man, Shah Nawaz Khan, appears in our painting, this time in yellow, holding up a book or document. Next to him, also resting on a staff, is Sayyid Razi Khan.
The example in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M. 77.78), signed by Khairullah and dated AH 1215/AD 1800-1801, in which he sits with head bowed, apparently listening to a courtier, who bears some resemblance both to Muinuddin Muhammad, and also the unnamed dark-bearded man in white at the front right of our painting.
The painting formerly owned by Stuart Cary Welch (already mentioned above), sold at Sotheby's, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part One: Arts of the Islamic World, 6th April 2011, lot 150, signed by the artist Khairallah, and dated AH 1212/AD 1797 (also to be found in Room for Wonder, pp. 102-103, no. 43).
In a wider sense comparison can be made with the painting of the Emperor Akbar Shah II in durbar, attributed to Ghulam Murtaza Khan, Delhi, circa 1810, Sotheby's, The Sven Gahlin Collection, 6th October 2015, lot 40; and another Akbar II durbar scene in the British Library (Add. Or. 3079), circa 1822 (illustrated in J. P. Losty, M. Roy, Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire, London 2012, pp. 210-213, fig. 151).
Archibald Seton (1758-1818) was Resident at Delhi from 1806 to 1811, succeeding David Ochterlony. He started in a junior position at Madras in 1781 and twenty-five years later, having served in increasingly senior posts, was named Resident at the Mughal court at Delhi in the waning days of the reign of Shah Alam II, who died in November 1806, succeeded by Akbar Shah II. Little is recorded of the relations between Seton and Akbar Shah, but it is well known that the Crown Prince, Mirza Jahangir, bristled against the Resident's presence, and shot at Seton one day in 1811. Seton survived, though he was quickly removed from the court and moved sideways (perhaps) to an appointment as Governor of Penang, where he served for about a year before returning to India to take up a seat in the Supreme Council of Bengal. He died in 1818 during his journey home to England.
For other paintings in which Akbar Shah II and Seton appear together, see a processional scene (San Diego Museum of Art 1990.394) and a fragmentary drawing of a durbar, sold in these rooms (Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 6th October 2008, lot 413). There is another long processional scene in the British Library (Add. Or. 888), circa 1815-25, in which Seton appears, identified by a Persian inscription. A painting formerly in the Edwin Binney Collection, and now in the San Diego Museum of Art, has Akbar Shah II in a palanquin with the bespectacled figure of Seton standing below (See Indian Miniature Painting from the Collection of Edwin Binney III: the Mughal and Deccani Schools, Portland 1973, p. 113, no. 91). Seton is always recognizable by the spectacles perched at the end of his nose. For a painting in which Seton is portrayed riding on an elephant with Akbar Shah II, see the sale in these rooms, Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 29th March 2022, lot 241 (painted some time after the death of both men).