ATTRIBUTED TO MUKHLIS, MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1575-90

This fine painting shows a taste for horse portraiture that spread through Safavid Iran and Mughal India in the 16th century. Depictions of horses alone, or with their grooms, became increasingly popular. In many, as here, the lavish trappings and dominant positioning of the animals demonstrate the animal's importance (Sheila Canby, 'Persian Horse Portraits and their Cousins', in David Alexander (ed]. Furusiyya, exhibition catalogue, Riyadh, 1996, vol. I, p.191). Few paintings however depict the unusual subject of the shoeing of a horse. The artist here renders the subject with elegant draughtsmanship paying close attention to details such as the horse's accoutrements. Another painting of the same subject, dated to circa AH 1509/1600-01 AD, is in the British Museum (inv.1942-1-24-01; published Alexander, op.cit., vol. lI, no.168, p.202). The essential composition is exactly the same as ours but a mirror image.

Our painting is attributed to Mukhlis, a painter who is known to have been active in Allahabad from as early as the 1550s. Although few paintings survive that have been signed by him, his contributions to a large number of the imperial commissions under the Emperor Akbar demonstrate his standing as a respected and important artist of the royal atelier.

Amongst his earliest known works are his contributions to the later stages of the famous 1557-72 Hamzanama, an illustrated manuscript narrating the wild and daring adventures of the protagonist Amir Hamza. His last work appears to be a set of the border designs in the 1595 Bodleian Library Baharistan. In the Hamazanama Mukhlis's style is distinguished by a number of features shared with our painting. His figures all have slanted almond-shaped eyes, clearly seen here. Somewhat heavy schematic modelling of the figures' clothing, darker shaded around the edges, is another common feature. This is very evident in the treatment of the robes of the sleeping guard in the painting of Hamza's Spies Sneaking into the City of Qimar in the Hamzanama (John Seyller, The Adventures of Hamza. Painting and storytelling in Mughal India, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 2002, no.58, pp. 178-79).

The delicate treatment of the saddle blanket in our painting also demonstrates that Mukhlis was extremely skilled as an illuminator. Examples of his work in the Hamzanama show similar use of dense yet very precise floral scrolls on a dark - either black or blue - ground. The white lotus blossoms on the saddle blanket here are particularly close to the red and blue examples found on a painting Songhur Balkhi and Lulu the Spy in the Hamzanama (John Seller, op.cit, no.64. pp.198-99, see also nos.58 and 77, pp.178-79 and 232-33).

As well as the works mentioned above, examples of paintings by Mukhlis can be found in other royal manuscripts, which include the British Library Darabnama of 1577-80; the Razmnama of 1582-86 in the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II City Palace Museum in Jaipur; the Babumama of 1591 and two unpublished paintings in the Tarikh-i Khandan-i Timuriyya of circa 1584-85 in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library (ff.66a and 1386) (Milo Cleveland Beach, The Imperial Image. Paintings for the Mughal Court, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1981, pp.215, 217). In the latter manuscript, the image of a platter-bearer on f.138b bears an extremely strong resemblance to our groom holding the reins of the horse.

The reverse of the folio bears several inscriptions that indicate that the painting had a series of illustrious owners. One of the earliest inscriptions states that it was for a time in the collection of Asaf Khan Khankhanan (d.1641), who was the eldest brother of Empress Nur Jahan, the consort of Shah Jahan's father Jahangir, and also the father of Shah Jahan's wife, Mumtaz Mahal (for a portrait of him, see An Eye Enchanted: Indian Paintings from the Collection of Toby Falk, 27 October 2023, lot 5). The painting then appears to have entered the Royal Library of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (r.1628-58), on the basis of several inspection notes, which were written in the first and the fifth year of the Emperor's reign. Later markings suggest that it remained in the royal library until the reign of the Emperor ‘Alamgir (r. 1658-1707) - there is an inspection note from the first year of his reign and also the seal of his royal librarian, who was also an accomplished calligrapher and scribe, Sayyid Ali al-Husayn in AH 1075/1565-66 AD.