A portrait of Sultan Muhammad 'Adil Shah II of Bijapur (r.1627-56), India, Deccan, Golconda, circa 1680

Ex-collection Dr. Stephan von Licht, Vienna (1860-1932)

His estate sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 8-9 December 1932, lot 120

Private Collection, Austria

This portrait of Sultan Muhammad 'Adil Shah of Bijapur is likely to have been painted as part of a series of portraits of princely rulers. The inscription suggests that the portraits would have been assembled for a European patron. There is a closely comparable portrait of Muhammad 'Adil Shah dated to circa 1680 bearing a very similar inscription, in an album which contains twenty-six paintings of Indian princes, now in the collection of the British Museum, London (acc. no.1974,0617,0.11.14).