A pair of portraits of Kings of Oudh: Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar (r.1814-27), and his son and successor Nasir-ud-Din Haidar (r.1827-37), by Muhammad Azam Musavvir, India, Lucknow, circa 1830

oil on canvas, each depicted half-length, seated in a large gold chair with pine-cone finials, both wearing the royal crown of Oudh, a hybrid European style designed by English court artist Robert Home (1752-1834). Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar in a yellow silk costume with jewellery, Nasir-ud-Din Haidar with the ermine cape and jewels of his coronation regalia, holding pen and scroll and with an ink-pot beside him; the portrait of Nasir-ud-Din Haidar signed beneath the ink-pot amal-I Muhammed Azam Musavvir (work of the painter Muhammed Azam), gilt frames

Sotheby's, New York, 19 September 1996, lot 193

India's Fabled City, The Art of Courtly Lucknow
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 12 December 2010-27 February 2011
Musée Guimet, Paris, 6 April-11 July 2011

S. Markel and T.B. Gude, India's Fabled City, The Art of Courtly Lucknow, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 2010, pp.14-5, p.19, no.36, p.95, no.2.

Nawab Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar was given the title 'King' by the British in 1819. His coronation was an exceedingly lavish affair; modelled in ceremony and symbolic accoutrements upon Mughal empowerment rituals. With limited governmental responsibilities, under the controlling over-sight of the British Resident, who was responsible for promoting the commercial interests of the company, Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar was free to patronise literature and poetry, as well as commission various monuments, including the Chota Chattar Manzil, parts of the Moti Mahal complex, and the Shah Najaf Imambara, which serves as his mausoleum. It is the Robert Home designed crown which is worn by Ghazi-ud-Din and Nasir-ud-Din in these two portraits. Robert Home painted a number of portraits of his patron, Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar, of which Mildred Archer cites only four as surviving, now in the collections of the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and the Shropshire Light Infantry (M. Archer, Indian and British Portraiture: 1770-1825, London, 1979, p.330, figs.232 and 233 for the two Victoria Memorial portraits).

The present two portraits by Muhammad Azam are fine example of work executed by an Indian artist in the European medium of oil on canvas. The manner of both portraits, which may be two of a once larger series, is based on this European example. The portrait of Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar may originate from a lost portrait by Robert Home, whereas that of Nasir-ud-Din Haidar may on the other hand refer to a portrait by a younger British artist, perhaps James Lock who was employed at Lucknow circa 1826-28, or George Heechey who succeeded Home as Court Painter at Lucknow in 1828.