The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 16, 2025

Posthumous portrait of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (reigned 1719–1748) holding a falcon (recto)

1764
(Indian, active mid-1700s)
Mughal India, probably Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Painting only: 14.4 x 10.3 cm (5 11/16 x 4 1/16 in.); Page: 28 x 23.8 cm (11 x 9 3/8 in.)
Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 2013.347.a
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The archer’s thumb ring is for drawing the bowstring. Perhaps he was left-handed.

Description

The artist used the carpet, the floor cushion, and the halo to indicate the royal status of the seated figure. He has turned the picture plane into the space of a window, over the sill of which a golden carpet ornamented with a field of lilies marks his location for outsiders. His signature in Persian, the Mughal lingua franca, interrupts the fringed border.

Painted after the emperor’s death and the dissolution of much of the Mughal court, this refined portrait pays tribute to the wealth and power of the imperial past.
  • before 1811–1849
    Sir Charles Forbes, 7th Baronet [1773–1849], Bengal, London, and Scotland, by descent to his great-grandson, Colonel Sir John Forbes
    ?–1962
    Colonel Sir John Stewart Forbes [1901–1984], Baronet, DSO, DL, Allargue House, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK, consigned to Sotheby's London for sale
    December 10, 1962
    (Sotheby’s, London, Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 10 December 1962, lot 25, sold to Ralph Benkaim)
    1962–2013
    Ralph Benkaim [1914–2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2013–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Indian Miniature Paintings from West Coast Private Collections. [Exhibition] May 29-July 19, 1964. San Francisco, CA: M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, 1964. Mentioned: cat. no. 6
    Desai, Vishakha N., B. N. Goswamy, and Ainslie Thomas Embree. Life at Court: Art for India's Rulers, 16th-19th Centuries. Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts, 1985. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 39, cat. no. 35
    Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie. “Art and Stories: Dazzling paintings and luxurious objects tell tales from Mughal India.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 56, no. 4 (July/August 2016): 5-7. Reproduced: p. 6; Mentioned: p. 7. archive.org
  • Carpets and Canopies in Mughal India​ (Indian art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 22-September 8, 2024).
    Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).
    Life at Court: art for India's rulers, 16th-19th centuries. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (November 20, 1985-February 9, 1986).
    Indian Miniature Paintings in West Coast Private Collections. Society for Asian Art, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA (May 29-July 19, 1964).
  • {{cite web|title=Posthumous portrait of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (reigned 1719–1748) holding a falcon (recto)|url=false|author=Muhammad Rizavi Hindi|year=1764|access-date=16 March 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.347.a