Lot 118
NAWAB KHAN DAURAN SEATED AT A WINDOW WITH FOUR OFFICIERS STANDING
INDIA, RAJASTHAN, UDAIPUR, CIRCA 1700
Auction: 10 June 2026 from 14:00 BST
Description
gouache on paper heightened in gold, one line of script in black ink above, the image within a red and yellow border with black margin lines, depicting a scene of an elderly nobleman framed under a shamiana with four noblemen, two on each side, facing towards him, wearing white robes and turbans with gold detailing, the nobleman are stood on a large rectangular Mughal carpet, with a pattern of cartouches filled with floral motifs, in front of the carpet is a low fence also featuring quatrefoil cartouches, mounted, glazed and framed
Dimensions
40.4cm x 25cm
Provenance
Formerly, Mewar royal collection.
Footnote
On the back on Devanagari: number ‘40’ at the top left; deleted Mewar inventory number ‘nam. 85’, replaced by red Mewar inventory numbers ‘20/82’; and a valuation of ‘Rs. 15’ below. In pencil in English: ‘Udaipur Durbar’ and ‘Nawan Khan Dauran’, these inscriptions were added when a selection of Mughal and other portrait paintings from the Mewar Royal Collection travelled to Delhi for the 1911 Royal Durbar exhibition held at the Delhi Museum of Archaeology.
There was great connection between the Mughal court and Rajput rulers in the seventeenth century as clearly shown in this painting with the Muslim Nawab Khan Dauran at an Udaipur palace window with four courtiers in attendance. Mughal customs and fashions were adopted by the court at Udaipur with Mewar artists influenced by their Mughal counterparts, combining Mughal attention to detail with the warm palettes of Rajasthan.
For further discussion see A. Topsfield, Painting from Rajasthan in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1980, p. 9, no. 54.