A prince riding in a landscape holding a falcon, attributable to Hunhar or a follower, India, Mughal, circa 1690-1720

Sir Howard Hodgkin, C.H., C.B.E., London (1932-2017)

Bruce Chatwin, London (1940-89)

Sotheby's London, 'The Sven Gahlin Collection', 6 October 2015, lot 30; acquired in 1964

Private collection, UK

This elegant equestrian portrait of a prince hawking can be compared to two seventeenth century equestrian portraits ascribed to the Mughal artist, Hunhar I. The first depicts the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in full imperial regalia seated on a pale blue horse, dated to circa 1660-70 (see Ehnbom 1985, no.28). The other is of the Mughal military commander Khan Jahan Bahadur seated on a similar dark brown horse, dated to circa 1690 (Johnson Album 18, 12, British Library; published in Losty and Roy 2012, p.156-7, fig.99). 

Hunhar I was a court artist who worked in the imperial Mughal atelier during the reigns of the Emperors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb from 1650-90. Hunhar is also known to have worked for Prince Muhammad Mu’azzam, the future Emperor Bahadur Shah I, and Aurangzeb’s second son. The prince employed several court artists, including Hunhar I, when Aurangzeb closed the painting atelier in circa 1668. The equestrian portrait of Aurangzeb mentioned in the reference above is thought to be of Prince Muhammad Mu’azzam rather than of his father by some scholars (see T. McInerney, 'Chitarman II', footnote 8, p. 562 in Beach, Fischer, Goswamy, Masters of Indian Painting 1650-1900 Vol.II, Zurich, 2011).

A closely comparable Mughal painting of a prince on horseback carrying a hawk is in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, dated to circa 1720 (inv.no. 63.7; published in Leach 1995, vol.I, p.510, no.4.36, pl.79). The form of the horse in the present work, especially the head and mane, can be compared to the work of Mughal artists such as Bhavanidas and Dalchand who moved to Rajasthan in the early eighteenth century. See, for example, an equestrian portrait of Maharaja Abhai Singh painted by Dalchand at Jodhpur in c.1725 (McInerney in Beach, Fischer and Goswamy 2011, p.570, fig.4).

An album page with a depiction of a Sufi concert attributed to Hunhar, dated circa 1650-60, from the collection of Eva and Konrad Seitz, sold recently in these Rooms, see 30 April 2025, lot 566.