The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), New York, USA
Location History:
Jack S. Rofe, Scotland (in 1929; sale, Sotheby's London,December 12, 1929, no. 121, to Kevorkian); [ Hagop Kevorkian, New York, from 1929]; [ Kevorkian Foundation, New York, until 1955; gift and sale to MMA]
This artwork is an example of album painting from the Shah Jahan Album. It is important to note that Murad did not paint the folio by himself. The page contains four portraits and different artists are credited for each one. The left portrait is by Balchand while the upper-right portrait of Inayat Khan is by Daulat. The portrait of Abd al-Khaliq is probably by Balchand and the right portrait of Jamal Khan Qaravul is specifically credited to Murad. Therefore for an assignment focusing on Murad the right portrait is the most important part of the folio to study.
The four portraits are arranged within a rectangular composition. Each figure stands alone against an barely decorated background allowing the viewer to focus on the sitter. The portraits demonstrate the Mughal interest in recording the appearance, clothing and social identity of people connected to the imperial court. The figures wear garments and accessories that communicate their high social status. Fine lines, facial details, precise brushwork and accurately painted costumes demonstrate the extraordinary skill of Mughal miniature painters. The use of watercolour and gold on paper also allows the artists to create details and rich decorative effects.
Murads contribution is especially interesting because his portrait represents Jamal Khan Qaravul, described as a nobleman. Through attention to the sitters face, clothing and posture Murad creates an image that communicates both individual identity and social position. The portrait shows how Mughal artists used details to represent rank and personality.
The portraits were originally produced during the reign of Emperor Jahangir, who ruled the Mughal Empire from 1605 to 1627. Jahangir strongly encouraged portraiture and artists during his reign became particularly skilled at observing and representing characteristics. This interest in detailed portraiture continued under his successor, Shah Jahan when the paintings were later incorporated into the Shah Jahan Album.
The folio also reflects the nature of the Mughal imperial atelier. Than being the work of a single artist it brings together paintings by Balchand, Daulat and Murad. Seeing their work, on the page allows viewers to understand both the shared traditions and individual skills of Mughal painters. Overall the artwork is important because it combines achievement with historical documentation preserving the identities, status and social world of people connected to the Mughal court.
A good example of how Mughal portraiture could turn a single page into a kind of small gallery of individuals is Four Portraits, from the Shah Jahan Album. The folio, ca. 1610–15, is a combination of four figures: a raja, probably Raja Sarang Rao, with Inayat Khan, Abd al-Khaliq, and Jamal Khan Qaravul. Each is isolated from the others, surrounded by plenty of empty space, so that he reads as his own person rather than as part of some larger scene or story. But what’s really interesting about the folio is the care that’s taken with the faces, with the clothes, with how each man carries himself. Rich fabrics, jewellery, fine detailing, yes, all of that signals social rank but there's more to it than that. There are subtle shifts of expression and pose that indicate the artists were also trying to capture something of what these men were really like. Inayat Khan, for example, appears relaxed, composed, even a little royal in his stillness, but the others have somewhat different moods and demeanours of their own. This arrangement also speaks to the wider interest in remembering people at the Mughal court, in keeping a visual record of who was around the emperor. These are not generic decorative figures representing 'courtiers' in general. They’re real people, recognisable, worth lying down and saving on paper. In this way, then, the folio becomes a kind of visual census of the imperial world, combining aesthetic pleasure with something like documentation. Good reminder that Mughal portraiture was not simply about making someone look grand or powerful. It was also about giving a real face to the people who made up the emperor’s social and political world.
