An album of forty portraits of Mughal and Deccan princes and - Lot 7

An album of forty portraits of Mughal and Deccan princes and dignitaries Comprising twenty paper folios as well as four initial and three final endpapers, each folio decorated on both sides with the portrait of a full-length figure painted in gouache with gold highlights on a coloured background, generally green, blue, yellow or mauve, framed by a gilded ribbon outlined in black, in margins decorated with gilded floral motifs. Underneath some of the figures, in an empty space below the floral margins, are their names and identifications written in the Latin alphabet in a sepia-toned ink. In the lower outer corner, there is, occasionally, pagination in western numerals in black ink, which seems to indicate that the album was meant to be consulted in the so-called western direction, i.e. from left to right. 18th century Indian binding with gilt embossed decoration and partly damaged spine. India, Golconda, circa 1690 Painting: 20.2 x 12.5 cm. Folio: 29 x 18.5 cm. Provenance: Formerly in the collection of the Ducs de Luynes, the library at the Château de Dampierre In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Golconda in the Deccan region of central India became a major centre of artistic production, renowned for its portrait albums of Mughal emperors and local dignitaries and clerics. It was here that a singular style flourished, marked in particular by monochrome backgrounds in blue, mauve, green, red and yellow. Several albums similar to our example come from this school, and bear witness to a highly stylized production of portrait suites. These albums can be found in public institutions, notably in Paris (BnF, Département des Estampes, FOL-OD-32; Département des Manuscrits, Smith-Lesouëf 232 and Smith-Lesouëf 233) and London (British Museum, 1974,0617,0.2.). Few albums of this style remain in private hands. These albums may have been produced for Europeans stationed in India, as suggested by the fact that they are read from left to right given the chronological succession of Mughal emperors. They are almost invariably decorated with highly stylised gold floral margins. The album in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Département des Manuscrits, Smith-Lesouëf 232) contains an almost identical series of portraits. It allows us to identify the following portraits among the 40 paintings contained in the album: Akbar Jahangir Shah Jahan Dara Shikoh Shah Shuja Aurangzeb Sultan Mohammed Qutb Shah Sultan Abu al-Hassan Sultan Muhammad Azam Shah Mirza Ahmad Mir Muhammad Sa‘id Madhu Bahman Shivaji Raja Mir Muhammad Amin Khan Mirza Muhammad Ibrahim Musa Khan Ghulam Sultan Abd Allah Qutb Shah Niknam Khan Muhammad Sayyid Muzaffar Our copy comes from the exceptional collection of the Ducs de Luynes, whose library, housed at the Château de Dampierre, was sold by Sotheby's Paris in April 2013. Paintings originally contained in an album mounted in India and frequently referred to as the ‘De Luynes Album’ were also presented by Christie's in October 2012 (lots 163-176) and by Sotheby's in April 1995 (lots 119-122).