Artwork Page for Shah Jahan

Details / Information for Shah Jahan

Shah Jahan

c. 1656–61

Rembrandt van Rijn

(Dutch, 1606–1669)
Culture
Netherlands
Medium
pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash
Support
Light brown Japanese paper laid down on beige(1) laid paper
Measurements
Sheet: 22.5 x 17.1 cm (8 7/8 x 6 3/4 in.); Secondary Support: 27.6 x 22.4 cm (10 7/8 x 8 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1978.38
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
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Did You Know?

The Mughal ruler portrayed in this drawing carries a fly swatter in his left hand.

Description

Rembrandt’s drawing portrays Shah Jahan, the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1628-58. It is one of twenty-three drawings that Rembrandt made after Indian miniatures, which he had very likely studied in an album then in Holland. By the 18th century, the album had been dismantled, and the model for this drawing now resides at the Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna. Rembrandt imposed his characteristic realist tendencies on a more detailed, formal, and stylized model, bringing the shah to life with especially fine pen strokes on the face and shoes mixed with evanescent brown ink washes around the figure that introduce a dynamic interplay of light, shade, and figure. Above the shah’s head, he scratched away parts of the ink and paper to create a nimbus shape that frames the profile. His meticulous technique and use of a rare and expensive Japanese paper suggest that he regarded his drawings after Mughal paintings as exceptional.
A vertically oriented brown ink drawing on light brown paper depicts Shah Jahan, a man in profile with a beard and mustache wearing a robe cinched with a belt. He bends his right arm at a ninety-degree angle and extends his left arm, holding a stick-like fly swatter. A streaking black background frames him, except where the ink is scratched away above his hat and at his feet. A second pair of shoes stand to his right.

Shah Jahan

c. 1656–61

Rembrandt van Rijn

(Dutch, 1606–1669)
Netherlands

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