Painting, the emperor Babur, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Mughal, ca. 1630

Painting, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, a portrait of Emperor Babur, seated on a white dari placed on an arabesque carpet which covers a stone terrace. He wears a long coat (jama) and girdle in the Persian style and a gold turban wound on a red kullah. His coat was thinly painted with a light copper green, in his left hand he holds a tooled leather binding and his right hand is extended outwards. Before him lie various objects - an open manuscript, several fruits and a leaf-basket of pink flowers. A gold railing separates the terrace from the green background which merges into sky streaked with gold. An inscription on the stonework of the terrace identifies him. The picture is surrounded by a greenish blue band decorated with a gold floral meander within gold ruled lines. An outer border is filled with gold flowering plants on a faded red ground.

Emperor Babur, seated on a white dari placed on an arabesque carpet which covers a stone terrace.

A panel of calligraphy by Dara Shokuh is on the back of the page (IS.37:2-1972).

This portrait of the Mughal emperor Babur was probably done during the reign of his great-great grandson, Shah Jahan, in about 1630. It is inscribed in Persian, the language of the court and of the elite of the Mughal empire, 'likeness of Babur Shah'. The painting is mounted on a page for an album, and has calligraphy by Shah Jahan's son, Dara Shokuh, on the reverse. It was bought by the museum from an auction at Sotheby's, London, in 1972.

IS.37-1972