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4 novembre 2017

Two previously unrecorded folios from the late Shah Jahan album

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© Christie's Images Ltd 2017

THE ALBUM
The ‘Late Shah Jahan Album’ was so called because it was compiled during the last decade of Shah Jahan’s reign, between 1650 and 1658. The paintings in the album date from about 1620 to 1657, with an emphasis on single standing portraits of Mughal dignitaries. The associated calligraphic folios are by the well-known 16th century Iranian calligrapher Mir ‘Ali, most of them signed by him. The unsigned ones are also thought to be the work of Mir ‘Ali, with the exception of a single folio which is signed by Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi. The album is assumed to have been part of the loot taken by Nadir Shah from Delhi in 1739. In the late 19th century it was taken to Russia by a brother of Nasir al-Din Shah, the Qajar ruler of Iran, and sold to an Armenian dealer who subsequently brought it to Paris in 1909 and sold it to the French dealer, Georges Demotte. It was dispersed in Paris after Demotte split many of the folios separating the paintings from their associated calligraphic sides. For a detailed discussion of the album, see Wright (ed.), 2008, pp.106-139. For a list of known folios from the Late Shah Jahan Album, see Wright (ed.), 2008, App.3, pp.462-466.

THE CALLIGRAPHY
The calligraphy on both our Late Shah Jahan Album folios is signed al-muthnib ‘Ali , probably referring to Mir ‘Ali al-Katib (1465-1544 AD). Mir ‘Ali is often mentioned by Safavid sources as amongst the most important nasta’liq calligraphers of all time. Various authorities attribute the codifying of the aesthetic rules of nasta’liq script to him. Born in Herat circa 1476, he was later taken to Bukhara by the Shaybanid ruler ‘Ubaydullah Khan after his capture of Herat in AH 935/1528-29 AD (Bayani, 1346 sh., p.494). His recorded works are dated between AH 914/1508-09 AD and AH 951/1544-45 AD. The works of leading Persian calligraphers were particularly prized at the Mughal court and Mir ‘Ali was amongst those particularly admired by Jahangir. A large number of qit’as signed by him found their way into important Mughal albums, and he is the calligrapher responsible for most of the specimens in the Late Shah Jahan Album. It is possible that they were bought to the Mughal court by way of his son Muhammad Baqir who emigrated to India and was mentioned by Abu’l Fazl’s in his Ain-i Akbari (Islamic Calligraphy, 1998, pp.170-171, no.54,). A comparable folio from a royal album made for Shah Jahan, probably the Late Shah Jahan Album, with foral margins surrounding a calligraphic panel signed by Mir ‘Ali, sold in these Rooms, 9 October 2014, lot 136.

THE BORDERS
The most distinctive feature of the Late Shah Jahan Album are the seated and standing fgures in the borders surrounding the central paintings. The usual format for the border fgures surrounding non-royal Mughal subjects, like our portraits, is three standing fgures in the long outer border and single or pairs of fgures seated in the upper and lower borders. If the subject of the central painting has a military association, the standing border fgures are often depicted carrying various types of arms. The seated fgures in the upper and lower borders are either conversing, reading, playing musical instruments, or examining collections of jewels and arms. The border fgures are attendants of the main subject and represent his wealth or military prestige. The inner narrow borders of the folios are usually peach in colour with gold scrolling foral motifs.

On the other side of the folios, the borders surrounding the panels of calligraphy comprise either arabesques or fowering plants as is the case with our folios in the two lots ofered here. Albums made for the Emperor Shah Jahan and his father Jahangir are celebrated for the
refned quality of the border decoration. The borders paid tribute to the royal patrons’ growing concern with the natural world - they actively encouraged artists of their ateliers to study and observe all aspects of it. The European herbaria of the early 17th century that were bought into the Mughal court by Jesuit missionaries provided ample inspiration. Under Jahangir (r.1604-28) artists such as Manohar and Mansur were encouraged to record animals, plants and birds with great attention to detail. It is claimed that in Jahangir’s Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, more than one hundred fower paintings were done by the artist Mansur in Kashmir alone (Beach, Fischer and Goswamy (eds.), 2011, p.257). Under Shah Jahan, this keen observation was applied to the borders of albums, where artists demonstrated the great precision and naturalism with which they had become practiced.

A number of albums with closely related foral borders were produced under the patronage of Shah Jahan. These include the Minto, Wantage and Kevorkian albums – all now identifed by the names of former Western owners. In the Late Shah Jahan Album, the calligraphic borders are usually foral, and certainly relate closely to the others mentioned above. In addition, particular foral species are repeated on a single border unlike the Minto, Wantage and Kevorkian albums, where each type of fower is used only once (Wright (ed.), 2008, pp.115-116).

Other folios with portraits from the album have sold more recently at auction. A Late Shah Jahan page, probably depicting Shah Shuja’, sold in these Rooms, 10 June 2015, lot 10. A portrait of Maharana Karan Singh of Mewar sold at Sothey’s Paris, 6 July 2017, lot 85.

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Lot 180. Recto with a portrait of Jai Singh Kachhawa of Amber, Verso with a nasta'liq quatrain from the Bustan of Sa'di written by Mir 'ali. The painting attributed to Payag, Mughal India, circa 1640-45; the calligraphy signed by Mir 'ali, Herat, Afghanistan, Late 15th-early 16th century. Estimate GBP 100,000 - GBP 150,000Price realised GBP 548,750© Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, recto an extremely sensitively observed portrait on plain ground, the margins with mostly military figures surrounded by gold floral sprays, verso with four very strong diagonal lines of nasta'liq from the Bustan of Sa'di, on bold scrolling golden floral design, overpainted with fine floral illumination on gold ground, fully illuminated spandrels around the title upper right and the signature kataba al-'abd al-mudhib Mir 'Ali al-Katib, illuminated margins, on buff leaf with elegant floral sprays, glazed each side and framed. Painting 8 ½ x 4 7/8in. (21.6 x 12.4cm.); calligraphy 5 ¾ x 3 ¼in. (14.6 x 8.6cm.); folio 15 x 10 ½in. (38.1 x 26.7cm.)

The identification of the figure as Mirza Jai Singh of Amber is further strengthened by the article “A Mughal Icon Reconsidered”, Catherine Glynn and Ellen Smart, Artibus Asiae, Volume 15, No. 1/2, 1997, pp. 5-15.

Property from the Estate of William Kelly Simpson.

William Kelly Simpson was born in Manhattan in 1928. His father, William F. Simpson, was an influential civic leader who served as Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Chairman of the New York County Republican Committee; and in 1940 was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Professor Simpson attended Manhattan’s Buckley School and the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Presaging a decades-long association with Yale, the future Professor Simpson graduated from Yale College in 1947 with a degree in English, and obtained his masters degree in New Haven in 1948. That same year, he made his initial foray into Egyptology, when curators W.C. Hayes and Ambrose Lansing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art hired the graduate as a Curatorial Assistant in the Egyptian Department. Imbued with an insatiable curiosity and precocious mind, Professor Simpson penned his first Egyptological article—an exploration of a Fourth Dynasty portrait head—at just twenty-one years old. That piece, published in the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, heralded a remarkable scholarly output, with more than 130 articles and twenty books written throughout his lifetime. 

Professor Simpson’s position within the Met’s Egyptian Department forever changed the trajectory of his life and, indeed, the wider field of Egyptology. It was during his time at the Met that Professor Simpson participated in his first archaeological expedition—an excavation in Iraq sponsored by the British School of Archaeology—and decided to pursue graduate work in Egyptology. In the early 1950s, the young scholar commuted between his work in New York and his studies at Yale, all while serving in the 101st Armed Calvary of the New York National Guard. In June 1953, Professor Simpson married Marilyn Milton, a Sarah Lawrence graduate and granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 

Professor Simpson studied for his doctorate under the noted Egyptologist Ludlow Bull, and wrote his dissertation on the excavation of the pyramid of Amenemhat I. It was not until obtaining his Ph.D. in 1954, however, that Professor Simpson made his first trek to Egypt, after being awarded a prestigious Fulbright research fellowship. For two years, Professor Simpson led excavation teams at the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur and at Mitrahineh. Upon returning to the United States, he was immediately offered a fellowship at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and in 1958 was appointed Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Literature at Yale. 

During Professor Simpson’s forty-six years in academia, he rose to Associate Professor, Professor, and Chair of Yale’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literature; was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in the Humanities; and positioned Yale as one of the foremost centers for Egyptology. Among his many archaeological projects in Egypt were the famed Pennsylvania-Yale Expeditions recording New Kingdom tombs and Meroitic cemeteries, the 1960s UNESCO campaign to rescue Nubian monuments threatened by the construction of the Aswan Dam, and excavations at the Giza Pyramids and sites in Nubia. “[Professor Simpson] served the monuments of Egypt… with unstinting passion,” noted fellow scholar Hussein Bassir. “He served as a major channel between Egypt and the US,” Bassir added, “to the benefit of the two nations and the archaeological and cultural ties between the two countries.” 

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Lot 181. Recto with a portrait of Safdar Khan, Verso with a nasta'liq quatrainThe painting attributed to Bichitr, Mughal India, circa 1635-40; the calligraphy signed by Mir 'ali, Herat, Afghanistan, dated AH 943/1536-37 ADEstimate GBP 80,000 - GBP 120,000Price realised GBP 392,750© Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Opaque pigments heighted with gold on paper, recto a well observed portrait on dark green ground, the margins with figures of courtiers and a sage surrounded by gold floral sprays, blue paper verso with four very strong diagonal lines of nasta'liq from a ghazal of Hilali Jagata'i on bold scrolling golden floral design, overpainted with fine floral illumination on gold ground, the title upper right and between the couplets, dated lower left, the signature in a large panel below Mir 'Ali al-Sultani al-Katib, illuminated margins, on buff leaf with elegant floral sprays, glazed each side and framed. Painting 7 1/8 x 4 ¼in. (18 x 10.8cm.); calligraphy 5 7/8 x 2 7/8 in. (14.9 x 7.3cm.); folio 15 x 10 ¾in. (38.1 x 27cm.).

NoteThis is a portrait of Sayyid Khwaja Qasim Safdar Khan (d.1645) painted late in his life. Safdar Khan was a long serving Mughal officer who held several official posts during the reign of the Emperor Shah Jahan (r.1628-58). In the first year of Shah Jahan’s reign, he received a dress of honour, a jewelled dagger, a horse with a silver saddle and an elephant amongst other gifts from the Emperor. Later that year he was given the title of Safdar Khan. He was part of various Mughal expeditions including visits to the Deccan. In Shah Jahan’s fifth regnal year, he was appointed to the prestigious post of Ambassador to Iran. He carried with him presents comprising rarities from India for Shah Safi, the ruler of Iran. After a successful six year diplomatic stint, Safdar Khan returned, bringing several presents back for the Emperor including five hundred Iranian horses. A couple of years after he returned to the Mughal court, he was sent to Qandahar as Governor. (The Ma’athir-ul-Umara: being biographies of the Muhamma¯dan and Hindu officers of the Timurid sovereigns of India from 1500 to about 1780 A.D., Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 1941, pp.665-667).

Our painting bears an identification inscription in a strong but loose black nasta‘liq which is likely to be in the hand of Shah Jahan. Not only is the strength that of Shah Jahan’s hand but the complete absence of any honorifics support the attribution. The inscription can be compared with those on two other portraits in the Late Shah Jahan Album, depicting Rustam Khan and Khan Dawran, which have also been attributed to Shah Jahan. (Elaine Wright (ed.), op. cit., cat.no. 62, 63, pp.386-389). The numeral 12 visible in the lower right is probably part of a system of foliation in the album. 

Our portrait has been attributed to the Mughal imperial artist Bichitr. An identical rendition of Safdar Khan’s face can be seen in an illustration from the Windsor Padshahnama (50b; M.C. Beach, E. Koch, King of the World, The Padshahnama, An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal LibraryWindsor Castle, London, 1997, pl.10) which is signed by Bichitr and dated to circa 1630. There is a tiny identification inscription discernible on the collar of Safdar Khan’s jama. He appears in the lower right section just above the golden railing and wears a brown-and-white striped jama. The features – especially the eyes and lips – and close-cropped facial hair are executed in an exceedingly fine and lightly articulated manner for which Bichitr was renowned. See, for comparison, the ascribed Portrait of Asaf Khan, dated RY 3 (to the third regnal year of the emperor Shah Jahan), circa 1630, in the Victoria and Albert Museum (IM 26-1965; Susan Stronge, Painting for the Mughal Emperor: The Art of the Book 1560-1660, London, 2002, pl.118, p.156). Bichitr brings the same level of technical mastery to the translucent gauze upper garment worn by the noble, particularly in nuanced folds and highlights along the collar, on both shoulders, and at the armpit. Even the dense and convincing folds at the bottom of the striped paijama demonstrate his characteristic attention to detail. Likewise, he meticulously records such details as the interrupted scroll pattern on the golden patka, the jewel-encrusted hilt of the sword, and the long, weighted lead of the falcon. The artist used a plain dark green ground in his earlier portrait of Jahangir, circa 1614-18, in the Minto Album (Elaine Wright (ed.), op.cit., no.37a, p.294). He turned to a similar dark green ground in his portraits painted around 1630 of Shah Jahan (VAM IM 17-1925; S. Stronge, op. cit., pl.94, p.129) and Salim as a youth (VAM IM 28-1925; R. Skelton, The Indian Heritage: Court Life and arts under Mughal rule, London, 1982, no. 50, p.41), but in those works he relieves the background with overt or discreet flowers.  

The border figures are also noteworthy. The grinning bearded figure in the upper centre is a close adaptation of either the singer in a Minto Album painting by Govardhan (CBL 7A.11; Elaine Wright (ed.), op.cit., no.47a, p.334) or a similar figure in Bichitr’s own Singer and Musician, circa 1640(VAM IM 27-1965; S. Stronge, op. cit., pl.122, p.159). The style of these border figures strongly resembles that of another Late Shah Jahan Album painting of A Gathering of Sages attributed to Bichitr (San Diego Museum of Art 1990:353, published in B.N. Goswamy and Caron Smith, Domains of Wonder: Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting, San Diego, 2005, no. 58), which has one figure in holding a book and is attributed to Muhammad Daula. So close are they, in fact, that the border figures here can also be attributed to the same artist.

The calligraphy on the reverse comprises verses from a ghazal of Hilali Jagata’i, and is signed and dated by the Safavid master calligrapher Mir ‘Ali, mir ’ali al-sultani al-katib fi shuhur sanah 943 “Mir ’Ali al-Sultani al-Katib, in the months of year 943 (1536-7).” 

We would like to thank John Seyller for his assistance with cataloguing this lot.

Christie's. Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets, 26 October 2017, London 

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