Painting, Small Clive Album p. 80, flowering plants, butterflies, and simurghs, ,opaque watercolour on paper, Mughal, first half 18th century

Painting, in opaque watercolour on paper, a plant with a single peony-like pink bloom dominates the centre of the painting which also has smaller flowering plants in the foreground and two butterflies, one yellow the other orange, which hover above the main plant. A grassy foreground is roughly indicated with green brush strokes rising to the plain ivory-coloured ground of the painting which gives way towards the top to a band of clouds in pink, orange and mauve. Above this there are two simurghs flying towards each other in a blue sky. The birds have brown bodies, green wattles and yellow tail plumes streaming out behind them.
The painting has a plain inner border of strips of pale ochre-coloured paper outlined in gold lines with black rulings set on a plain ivory-coloured page with strips of dark grey paper outlined in gold at its edges. There is a strip of beige-coloured woven textile attached to the inner side of the page as a gutter for the binding.

Gift of Mr. John Goelet

This miniature painting is part of the Small Clive Album of Indian miniatures which is thought to have been given by Shuja ud-Daula, the Nawab of Avadh, to Lord Clive during his last visit to India in 1765-67. It contains 56 leaves on which are Mughal miniature paintings, drawing and flower studies on both sides. The binding is covered with an Indian brocade silk that may have been cut from lengths brought home by the 2nd Lord Clive, who served as Governor of Madras, 1799 to 1803. The album was sold from Powis Castle at Sotheby's sale, 16 to 18 January 1956, lot 332A.

This study of flowering plants, birds of paradise and butterflies is included in the "Small Clive Album", a volume of Indian paintings which is thought to have been given by Shuja ad-Daula, the Nawab of Avadh, to Lord Clive during his last visit to India in 1765-67. It contains 56 folios on which are Mughal paintings, drawings and flower studies dating to the 17th and 18th centuries. The binding is covered with an Indian brocade. The album was given to the museum by Mr John Goelet in 1956.

IS.48:40/B-1956