The painting resides at a private art collection through Sotheby\'s Auction House.
Mushfiq was a painter in the Mughal atelier during the 17th century and was known for his paintings from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in the Mughal versions. Mushfiq worked for Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan. He mostly depicted court scenes and scenes from the life of the royal family members.
"A Mughal Prince smoking a long pipe seated in an interior with attendants and a child" is an excellent example of his exceptional talent. The painting depicts a prince smoking a long pipe while sitting on a yellow cushion with bright red and green embroidery on it with an attendant standing behind him with a fly whisk in his hand to fan the prince, another attendant slightly older can be seen reading probably a message to him as we can see holding out a white scroll and next to him sits another attendant holding the middle section of the long smoking pipe and something in the tongs of his other hand, viewers can also spot a child next to the prince holding a bow and arrow in his hands. In front of the prince one can spot a pandan, a wine glass and some other things probably related to smoking. A few books can be seen scattered around the side of the prince and some on the shelf near a closed door, showing his interest in reading.
Mushfiq has used a bright palette for his painting, paying a lot of attention to every tiny detail of the everyone's clothing who is present in the scene revealing his deep observation. He has painted the surrounding background and foreground very beautifully with intricate wall designs and a small garden in the front. The wall has beautiful mughal motifs and so do all the carpets in the frame. Mushfiq has used a wide range of colours like yellow, green, red, lavender, and white with a tinge of pink.
The overall composition of the painting is eye-catching and shows how keen observant Mushfiq was for painting the tiniest details which also reveals his love for his work. In all true sense one can say that Mughal paintings aren't just beautiful, but also reveal an entire story through them.
This gouache-and-gold miniature, signed by the artist Mushfiq and dated 1016 AH (1607–8 AD), depicts a Mughal prince reclining in an interior setting, drawing on a long-stemmed pipe while attendants and a child look on. Mushfiq worked almost his entire career in the atelier of the Mughal general and bibliophile Abd al-Rahim Khan-Khanan, for whom this painting was made, and a near-contemporary biography records that the general personally trained the artist and dramatically refined his abilities. Signed works by Mushfiq are uncommon, which lends this sheet particular documentary value, and his signed contributions elsewhere include an illuminated Panj Ganj manuscript, the Freer Ramayana, the Razmnama of 1616–17, and a Khamsa now in Berlin.
Iconographically, the picture is significant for its depiction of an early, distinctive smoking apparatus: the extended-stem pipe shown here predates the Mughal court's later adoption of the hookah, with its water-cooling bowl. Painted under Mughal patronage in the Deccan, the work reflects the courtly and intimate genre scenes favored in atelier production of the period combining portraiture, domestic leisure, and social hierarchy (prince, attendants, child) within a compact interior composition, characteristic of Khan-Khanan's refined artistic circle.
