Akbar Shah II (r. 1806-37) was the second to last Mughal emperor. Despite holding the title of emperor, his actual power was significantly diminished due to the growing influence of the British East India Company in India. However, the cultural life of Delhi thrived during his reign.
Artworks in late Mughal period are characterised by bright opaque colours, minimal illusionism and intricate detail. In the early nineteenth century, Delhi became a major hub where late Mughal and Company School paintings (commissioned by the British) coexisted and influenced each other. With the addition of certain European touches, late Mughal miniatures continued to imitate floral borders of Shah Jahan’s reign, aiming to evoke the spirit of the Mughal golden age. In portraits of the last emperors, artists often portrayed their subjects as icons frozen in an icily static, almost surreal, atmosphere, imbuing them with dignity and even magnificence – a style that was highly romanticised given the court’s destitution. (Leach, Linda York. Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library: Volume II. London: Scorpion Cavendish, 1995, pp. 799-800.)
The folio in this lot features an image of Akbar II in his palace, accompanied by ten cartouches with his honorary names written in Persian. The image is framed by a thin indigo border decorated with gold motifs and surrounded by multicoloured flowers against a gold ground. In the painting, Akbar II is seated in his cushioned royal couch, flanked by two attendants waving peacock-feathered fans. A halo behind Akbar’s head signifies his superior status. The attendants are dressed in traditional Mughal attire – a sky-blue jama with a blue-and-gold katzeb sash tied around the waist, ankle-length churidars and a pagri on the head. In contrast, Akbar’s garments are far more luxurious and ornate. He is also dressed in Mughal fashion, wearing a finely embroidered choga over his light pink jama and completing the outfit with a royal headpiece embellished with pearls and gemstones. Like his predecessors, Akbar is also lavishly adorned with pearl necklaces featuring large gold pendants, a pair of pearl bracelets and a pearl bead held in his right hand. The background of the painting showcases a detailed depiction of Akbar’s palace, with gilt columns recalling the grandeur of the Mughal Empire just a few decades earlier. The use of perspective in portraying the architectural setting, together with the choice to present figures in a three-quarter view rather than in profile, reflects the influence of European art, common in late imperial Mughal paintings.
Paintings from the reign of Akbar II possess a unique artistic quality, as they capture a pivotal moment in history, conveying a nostalgic throwback to past glory and implying an inevitable fall in a twinkling. A painting of Akbar II in a durbar event, which once belonged to the Howard Hodgkin Collection, is now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. no. 2022.196). In this painting, Akbar is depicted seated on the famous peacock throne at the Diwan-i-Khas at the Red Fort in Delhi, masking the decline of Mughal power and the rise of British control. The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, also holds a portrait of Akbar II in its collection (acc. no. 289-1871), where the emperor is shown with Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalf, directly illustrating the European presence in the Mughal court.