The Mughal Emperor Jahangir instructing his son, possibly Prince Khurram, in the art of falconry, India, Mughal, circa 1620

The Murray Album (assembled by Colonel John MacGregor Murray, Bart (1745-1822), Bengal and Scotland)

Sotheby's London, 15 June 1959, lot 117, no.28

Hagop Kevorkian (1872-1962), New York

Sotheby's London, Property of the Hagop Kevorkian Fund, 3 April 1978, Lot 83

Sotheby's London, 24 April 1997, Lot 504

John MacGregor Murray, who acquired this painting along with several others in the late eighteenth century, was commissioned into the Bengal Establishment of the East India Company in 1771, rising to the rank of Colonel in 1787. He was an influential and respected military administrator and among the appointments he held was the post of Military Auditor-General. He was also vice-president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In 1795 he was awarded a baronetcy and retired to Scotland in 1798, where he became Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Perthshire (see The East India Military Calendar, Containing the Services of General and Field Officers of the Indian Army, London, 1824, pp.461-3). The album of paintings he assembled in India was sold at auction in these rooms, 15 June 1959, lot 117, acquired by Hagop Kevorkian and subsequently dispersed.

The nimbate Emperor Jahangir stands on the right wearing an orange turban and a mauve jama. His left arm appears to rest on a sword while his right arm clad in a gauntlet is pointing at the falcon. A Mughal prince, also nimbate, stands before him with a falcon perched on his similarly gauntlet-protected right arm . The prince is most likely to be Prince Khurram, the eldest son of Jahangir. The stance of his figure, including the placement of his hands, is similar to the well-known portrait of Khurram holding a turban ornament, painted by the artist Abu’l Hasan in circa 1616, a few years before the present work, now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IM.14-1925).

The inscription on the reverse of the present lot erroneously identifies the figures as Akbar and Jahangir. A comparable painting from the Late Shah Jahan Album illustrating Akbar as a much older figure standing on the right holding a falcon, facing Jahangir, by the artist Balchand, dated to circa 1630, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (55.121.10.19; illus. A. Okada, Imperial Mughal Painters, Paris, 1992, p.30, fig.29).

The composition of our painting is closely comparable to another Mughal double portrait depicting Emperor Aurangzeb with one of his sons, probably Prince A’zam Shah, who stands before him holding a falcon. This painting was also part of the Murray Album and sold in these rooms, Sotheby’s London, 23 October 2024, lot 162. 

For a further painting of Jahangir in the present sale, with borders from the late Shah Jahan Album, see lot 163.