Beschreibung:

*SHIRIN MOURNING FARHAD’S DEATH PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION School of Mir Kalan Khan, Lucknow, Court of Awadh, Northern India, third quarter 18th century Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition set in a realistically depicted landscape and capturing a crucial moment from the Khosrow o Shirin tragic romance by Nezami Ganjavi; in the centre Farhad, the Bisotun mountain stone carver, lying on the floor, his head bleeding and his mace near him; Shirin, the Armenian princess, kneeling next to him and mourning his death, a handkerchief in her hand, her attendants behind her in shock; in the foreground a guilty Khosrow with his horse, bringing his hand to his mouth expressing bewilderment in the typical Persian way, and wild animals such as sparrows, hares and ducks, all paused to pay respect to the scene; the background with hilly green landscape inhabited by peacocks, rams and villagers, Western-inspired building and castles on the right hand-side, birds flying up high in the sky; the whole composition framed within concentric bands of dense vegetal tendrils and floral scrollwork, the largest band with golden and polychrome-painted scrolling floral tendrils with stylised lotus flowers and rosettes, the final border with cusped cartouches possibly a later addition, an undeciphered seal in the back, mounted on a white cardboard, unsigned, 11.5cm x 6.8cm the illustration, 37cm x 24cm the folio. Remembered as one of the most renowned painters of 18th-century India, Mir Kalan Khan started his early career at the court of Muhammad Shah in Delhi in the 1730s. Following the invasion and sack of Delhi by Nadir Shah (1739), many artists were compelled to leave the court and find new patrons. Mir Kalan Khan settled at the Awadh court and became its leading court painter, active both in Faizabad and Lucknow, producing an incredible body of eclectic and innovative works (Leach, Linda York, “Mir Kalan Khan and Provincial Mughal Painting of the Later Eighteenth Century” in Paintings from India, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, edited by Julian Raby, vol. 8. London, 1998, pp. 168–169). His style and school are characterised by a unique and well-mastered assimilation of European, Mughal and Deccani elements, usually involving a naturalistic rendering of the landscape with a clear awareness of space and volume; a distinctive handling of foliage and light effects; Italianate and Flemish-inspired scenes and buildings influenced by European prints; bucolic settings typical of Deccani paintings; a mannerist use of colours; northern Indian and Mughal-inspired physiognomies and costumes; and last but not least, a sharp eye and interest for human feelings and reactions to the point of creating whimsical theatrical scenes (Malini Roy, ‘Origins of the Late Mughal Painting Tradition in Awadh’ in India’s Fabled City: The Art of Courtly Lucknow, ed. S. Markel and T. Bindu Gude, Los Angeles, 2010, pp. 165 – 170). All the above-mentioned features are elegantly showcased in this beautiful composition, leading to suggest this lot was painted either by his direct pupils or by one of his followers. A strikingly similar composition can be seen in a painting attributed to Mir Kalan Khan, successfully sold at Pundole’s Mumbai, 9 April 2015, . The similarity lies not only in the style of the landscape and the division of the painting in foreground, centre and background, but also in the choice of the subject, taken this time from Leyla o Majnun, another famous tragic romance by Nezami Ganjavi. * Please note that this lot is subject to import VAT at a preferential rate of 5% on the Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on the Buyer’s Premium.