Lot 79
A FINE EQUESTRIAN PORTRAIT OF MUGHAL EMPEROR MUHAMMAD AZAM SHAH ‡
INDIA, DECCAN, CIRCA 1700
Auction: 10 June 2026 from 14:00 BST
Description
gouache on paper heightened in gold, inscribed in nasta'liq above left in black ink: “The exalted king, A'zam Shah”, depicting the ruler riding a richly caparisoned and henna'ed palomino stallion rearing and facing to the right, the ruler dressed in a floral and white jama secured with a gold and coloured patka, red boots, a brown turban with a jewelled aigrette, an attendant running alongside carrying a morchal over his shoulder, against a blue background and a line of white cranes flying above, a white crane in the bottom left and right hand corner, poppy and carnation sprays along a green tuft of grass below, mounted, glazed and framed
Dimensions
35.5cm x 24.6cm
Provenance
Formerly, a French collection (illegible handwriting on the back).
Private Spanish collection.
Footnote
This is a magnificent portrait of Muhammad Azam Shah, quite possibly painted around the time he became the seventh Mughal Emperor - a post he held for a mere 3 months from 14 March 1707 to 20 June 1707, before he was defeated and killed at the battle of Jajau.
Azam Shah was the third and favourite son of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (1618-1707) and his chief consort, Dilras Bank Begum. He was a high-ranking Mughal prince who served as a governor before he ruled as the seventh Mughal Emperor upon his father's death. His father had sent him to the Deccan in 1685 to seize Bijapur which finally fell to the Mughals the following year in 1686. Aurangzeb's invasion of the Deccan lasted twenty-six years from 1681-1707 and it is at this time, towards the end of the seventeenth century, that Deccani artists were productive and influenced by their counterparts in the Mughal studios. There is also a link between Kishangarh and Bikaner painting during this period as Rajasthani generals serving Aurangzeb's Mughal army were also in the Deccan commissioning local studios.
For another equestrian portrait of Azam Shah as a younger boy out hawking in the Chester Beatty Library, see L. York Leach, Mughal and other Indian paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, no. 4.36, p. 510, and for another painting with very similar background, see Luminaries, Myths and Fantasy in Indian and Persian Painting, Forge & Lynch, Exhibition Catalogue, London and New York, 2026, no. 10. For comparable portraits of Azam Shah that have sold through auction, see Christie's, Islamic, 11 April 2000, lot 91, and Arts & Textiles of the Islamic & Indian Worlds including works from the collection of Simon Digby, 7 October 2011, lot 386.
For further discussion and comparisons see: M.C. Beach, The Grand Mogul Imperial Painting in India, 1600-1660, Williamstown, Massachusetts,1978, p. 171, no. 67; T. Falk and M. Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library, London, 1981, pp. 89-90, no.97, and; M. Zebrowski, Deccani Painting, London, 1983, pp. 209-216 , nos. 183 and 185.