The young Emperor Shah Alam II enthroned on a terrace watching a nautch, Mughal, Murshidabad, circa 1760-65

gouache with gold on paper, inscribed on reverse in ink in an 18th century English hand, a second early inscription in pencil

The inscription on the reverse is in an 18th-century English hand and reads "A Nautch of dancing girls exhibiting before the Emperor", implying that it was acquired or commissioned by a British Collector at the time it was painted. A second early inscription on the reverse, in a similar hand, has faded to illegibility.
Ex-private collection, Florida

Generally in fair condition, some wear around the edges, as viewed.
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This scene shows a ruler watching a nautch, and the face of the main figure is close to that of Emperor Shah Alam in his youth. The contemporary English inscription on the reverse describes him as "the Emperor", implying that he was in power at the time. Shah Alam II was on the throne from 1759 until 1806 and spent a good deal of his early reign in the provinces. Two other portraits of him early in his reign are known, one painted at Patna in 1764 (British Library, Add.Or.5694, see Losty, J., and M. Roy, Mughal India, Art, Culture and Empire, fig.114, pp.172-3) and one painted at Allahabad circa 1765 (Museum fur Islamische Kunst, Berlin, I.4594, fol.32r; see Losty, J., "Towards a New Naturalism: Portraiture in Murshidabad and Avadh", in Schmitz, B., (ed.), After the Great Mughals, Painting in Regional Courts in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Mumbai, 2002. Interestingly, the British Library example has an inscription on the reverse in an English 18th century English hand reading "This picture given to me by Hugh Acland 1764. F.T.H.". Although neither Hugh Acland nor the person with the initials F.T.H. have been identified, it seems to be a similar provenance context to the present work. The inscription on th ereverse of th epresent work resembles the handwriting of early British collectors such as Dr William Fullarton, the Scottish surgeon who was resident in Bengal and Bihar from 1744 to 1766 , who often inscibed the reverse of his paintings. The musicians in this painting are close in style to the attendants in a well-known portrait by Dip Chand of Dr William Fullarton seated on a terrace (Victoria and Albert Museum, IM.33-1912).