Nawab Aliverdi Khan thumbnail 1
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Nawab Aliverdi Khan

Painting
ca. 1750 - ca. 1755 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Murshidabad (made)

Painting, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Nawab Alivardi Khan seated on a terrace in conversation with his nephews Nawaziah Muhammad Khan (Shahamat Jang) and Sa'id Ahmad Khan (Saulat Jang) and his grandson Siraj ud-daula.

Object details

Categories
Paintings
Royalty
Bonita Trust Indian Paintings Cataloguing Project
Jewellery
Object type
Painting
TitleNawab Aliverdi Khan (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Painted in opaque watercolour and gold on paper
Opaque Watercolour
Paper
Paint
Gold
Painted
Brief description
Painting, Nawab Aliverdi Khan with nephews and grandson on terrace, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Murshidabad, ca. 1750-1755
Physical description
Painting, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Nawab Alivardi Khan seated on a terrace in conversation with his nephews Nawaziah Muhammad Khan (Shahamat Jang) and Sa'id Ahmad Khan (Saulat Jang) and his grandson Siraj ud-daula.
Dimensions
  • Height: 38cm
  • Width: 27.5cm
The painting has gold border with floral diaper.
Content description
Nawab Alivardi Khan seated on a terrace in conversation with his nephews Nawaziah Muhammad Khan (Shahamat Jang) and Sa'id Ahmad Khan (Saulat Jang) and his grandson Siraj ud-daula.
Styles
Mughal
Murshidabad School
Production typeUnique
Object history
Historical significance: The four persons depicted in the painting were all historical figures, particularly Alivardi Khan and Siraj ud-daula.

Transferred from the Department of Engraving, Illustration & Design.

RP 51/2237
Production
The painting is in the style of the Mughal provincial court painting, in particular Murshidabad school. The city of Murshidabad assumed a new importance and a new name early in the eightenth century, when Murshid Quli Khan was appointed Mughal governor of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and made Murshidabad the administrative capital of the province in sucession to Dacca. A most able administrator in that time of disintegrating central government, he was also a devout Muslim whose austere and frugal disposition made him an unpromising patron of the arts. Robert Skelton has, however, demonstrated that under this nawab and by about 1720 Murshidabad may already have attracted some of the court painters displaced by the decline of Mughal patronage at Delhi, and become the centre of a new school of provincial Mughal painting which was to achieve its definitive state under Nawab Alivardi Khan some thirty years later. Robert Skelton notes the influence of late Aurangzeb period court paintings on the formal style and sombre colour scheme of early Murshidabad work, anticipating the 'grey precision' which characterises Murshidabad painting of the mid-eighteenth century.
Subjects depicted
Swords
Terrace
Ruler
Alivardi Khan
Nawaziah Muhammad Khan
Siraj Ud-Daula
Bibliographic references
  • Susan Stronge, Nima Smith, and J.C. Harle. A Golden Treasury : Jewellery from the Indian Subcontinent London : Victoria and Albert Museum in association with Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, 1988. ISBN: 0944142168 Fig 11, page 35. Swallow, Deborah and John Guy eds. Arts of India: 1550-1900. text by Rosemary Crill, John Guy, Veronica Murphy, Susan Stronge and Deborah Swallow. London : V&A Publications, 1990. 240 p., ill. ISBN 1851770224,p 172/3, pl.149. Ekaterina Schcherbina, ed., India: Jewels That Enchanted the World. Moscow Kremlin Museums, 2014, cat. 100, pp. 180-181 Skelton, Robert, 'Murshidabad Painting', Marg, Vol.X, No.1, December 1956, pp.12-13 Jaffer, A. Furniture from British India and Ceylon: a catalogue of the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2001. ISBN 1 85177 318 5. p.107, fig.34.
  • Jackson, Anna and Jaffer, Amin (eds), with Deepika Ahlawat. Maharaja : the splendour of India's royal courts. London, V&A Publishing, 2009. ISBN.9781851775736 (hbk.), ISBN.1851775730 (hbk.). Plate 144, page 173.
  • Das, N. and Llewellyn-Jones, R. (eds.). Murshidabad: Forgotten Capital of Bengal, ISBN 978-81-921106-9-1. Marg, Mumbai, 2013. ISBN 978-81-921106-9-1. p. 83, pl. 1.
  • The Indian Portrait: 1560-1860 London: National Portrait Gallery, 2010 Number: 978 1 85514 409 5 p. 42, fig. 1.
  • Swallow, D., Stronge, S., Crill, R., Koezuka, T., editor and translator, "The Art of the Indian Courts. Miniature Painting and Decorative Arts", Victoria & Albert Museum and NHK Kinki Media Plan, 1993. p. 147, cat. no. 131
  • Arts of Bengal : the heritage of Bangladesh and eastern India : an exhibition organized by the Whitechapel Art Gallery in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum : 9 November-30 December 1979, Whitechapel Art Gallery ..., 12 January-17 February 1980, Manchester City Art Gallery ... . [London]: Whitechapel Art Gallery, [1979] Number: 085488047X (pbk.) : p.45
  • The V&A Album, 5, London: 1986 Number: ISBN 1851770771 Stronge, Susan, Jewels for the Mughal Court, pp. 308-317
Collection
South & South East Asia Collection
Accession number
D.1201-1903

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Record createdFebruary 10, 2003
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74119/nawab-aliverdi-khan-painting-unknown/
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