Lot 54
A PORTRAIT OF THE NIZAM OF HYDERABAD, ASAF JAH II ‡
INDIA, HYDERABAD, LATE 18TH CENTURY
Auction: 10 December 2025 from 14:00 GMT
Description
gouache and gold on paper, depicting the ruler in profile facing to the left, a nimbus around his head, dressed in a white, red and gold jama, holding a flower in his left hand, wearing an abundance of gold jewels, the blue ground inscribed in gold with his name upper left hand side, mounted, framed and glazed
Dimensions
29cm x 16.5cm
Provenance
Sotheby’s, Arts of the Islamic World, 12 October 2005, lot 39.
The collection of a German enthusiast.
Footnote
Inscriptions:
Nawab Nizam ‘Ali Khan Bahadur
Published:
Joachim Bautze, Indian Miniature Painting, Exhibition Catalogue, 1987, Amsterdam, no. 27, p. 9. (need to check this)
Note:
The Nawab Mir Nizam 'Ali Khan belonged to the Asafiya dynasty of Hyderabad and reigned from 1762 to 1803.
A larger portrait in the same style, and formerly in the collection of Edwin Binney 3rd, is in the San Diego Museum, USA, see accession no. 1990.556. Both the latter and our painting are likely to be versions of a portrait painted by the Nizam's favoured court artist, Venkatchellam, signed and dated to AH 1206/ AD 1791-92 (see M. Zebrowski, Deccani Painting, no. 246, p. 266). Zebrowski describes the artist as portraying the Nizam ‘as the source of grace and good breeding - for which the prestigious but impotent kingdom of Hyderabad was celebrated - rather than as a symbol of power.’