Colonel Mordaunt and Nawab Asaf al-Daula of Avadh at a Cock Fight, Company School, Patna, circa 1840, after Richard Earlom's mezzotint of Zoffany's 'Col. Mordaunt's Cock Match'

gouache on cloth, framed

Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st earl of Minto, Governor General of India, 1807-13
Elliot Family Collection
Curteis Collection

In reasonably good overall condition, some abrasions to the painted surface, as viewed.
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This painting of Colonel Mordaunt and Nawab Asaf al-Daula of Avadh at a Cock Fight is a striking and vibrantly-painted depiction of an apparent altercation between two men at a cockfight, a favourite past-time of the Indian court of Oudh or Awadh.

This is in fact an Indian version of the celebrated painting, Col. Mordaunt’s Cockfight, (fig.1) by Johann Zoffany, the famously successful and influential European painter who counted Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of India, the Chief Justice, Sir Elijah Impey, and various Indian rulers including Nawab Asaf al-Daula of Awadh, among his patrons. Zoffany lived in Calcutta and Lucknow between 1783 and 1789. Originally commissioned by Warren Hastings, Zoffany painted two versions of Col. Mordaunt’s Cock Match, circa 1785, one of which was given to the Nawab himself, the other being kept by Hastings. The Nawab’s own version has since been lost, thought to have been destroyed during the plunder of Lucknow in 1857.

The present painting is a mirror copy by a Patna artist, with some modifications, of Warren Hastings’ original, now hanging in the Tate Britain. It is based upon a mezzotint done by Richard Earlom of Hasting’s Col. Mordaunt’s Cockfight, created after Hastings returned to England. The artist has replaced Zoffany’s original outdoor scene of an awning and trees with the façade of a colonial-style building. He has reversed and focused the scene of the cockfight, centering on the confrontation between Colonel John Mordaunt and Nawab Asaf al-Daula.

Mordaunt was the commander of the Nawab’s bodyguard, a special favourite of the court and responsible for organising regular cock fights for the Nawab’s amusement. These were attended by the highest ranking Europeans in Lucknow and the nobles of the Nawab’s court, many of whom are included in the picture. A further version of Zoffany's painting by an Indian artist in Lucknow, circa 1800, is in the Harvard Art Museum/Arthur M. Sackler Museum (2009.202.225, see S. Markel and T.B. Gude et al, India's Fabled City: The Art of Courtly Lucknow, Los Angeles, 2010, p.66, no.105).

This painting descended through the Elliot family who trace their ancestry to the first Earl of Minto, Governor-General of India from 1807 to 1813. It may have been commissioned or indeed purchased by Lord Minto’s son, John Elliot.