Jahangir as the Queller of Shah Jahan's Rebellion, India, Mughal, 17th century

Christie's, London, 11 July 1974, lot 81

Christie's, London, 26 April 2012, lot 20

inscriptions

shabih-i mubarak-i nur al-din muhammad jahangir badshah-i ghazi ki roz-i nawroz-i hazhdahum-i julus-i mubarak muwafiq-i hazar u si u du hijri ki saf-ara-i ma’raka-i fath u nusrat bud

'Blessed likeness of Nur al-Din Muhammad Jahangir Warrior Emperor, who on the day of Nawruz of the eighteenth [year of] the blessed accession, equivalent to the Hijri year one thousand and thirty-two, drew up his forces on the battlefield of conquest and victory.'

In the present painting, the 'world-seizing' emperor Jahangir commemorates and celebrates not a glorious foreign campaign, but victory in the siege of his own capital, against the forces of his own son. As he contemplates a globe topped with his own genealogical seal, battle rages in the green background, rendered in a soft monochrome with touches of gold. This painting is a version of the lauded allegorical painting of emperor Jahangir painted on the occasion of his successful quelling of the rebellion of prince Khurram [Shah Jahan], by the court artist Abu'l-Hasan (Welch et al. 1987, pp.104-7). That portrait, which is now in the Freer Gallery, Washington D.C., was sold in these rooms, 12 December 1929, lot 110, and is additionally inscribed 'Oh Lord, may this world remain a memorial to the era of Shah Jahangir'. A third, technically inferior version of this painting was sold in these rooms, 14 October 1980, lot 193, as part of an album of paintings reputedly executed circa 1800 in Delhi that copied seventeenth-century paintings in imperial Mughal albums.

A template made from the original portrait by Abu'l-Hasan is in the Freer Gallery, Washington D.C. (inv. no.F1907.592; Beach 1981, p.185). Through the use of such patterns, compositions were preserved and handed down within painters' families, and the 1980 Sotheby's painting is likely a copy from such a pounce (Beach 1981, p.185). However, the great technical skill shown by the painter and the subtle differences with the original in the present painting, including the omission of Sultan Muhammad from Jahangir's genealogical seal, suggest that the present painting was likely copied directly from the original painting, possibly around the same time as the original, in an effort to propagate the painting's triumphant message.