Portrait of Guru Tegh Bahadur with a Lute Player

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Portrait of Guru Tegh Bahadur with a Lute Player

Place of OriginIndia

DateMughal, likely 17th century

DimensionsPainting: 13 15/16 × 9 7/16 in. (35.4 × 23.9 cm)
Framed: 23 × 19 × 1 5/8 in. (58.4 × 48.3 × 4.1 cm)

MediumWatercolor on paper

ClassificationManuscripts

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1926.18

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 15

Label TextPrince Ruruhig Bahadur Jir is portrayed with a court musician, who is entertaining him with music. The bearded prince is seated on a tranquil palace terrace. The elegant pavilion behind him is typical of the luxurious marble architecture inlaid with semiprecious stones made famous by the prince’s ancestor, Shah Jahan, who commissioned the Taj Mahal. A silk awning with similar floral designs to the marble is rolled up above the prince’s head. Beyond the pavilion is a garden with cypress trees backlit by a pink sunset and thunderclouds threatening the serene scene. In the Indian Mughal courts, artists were commissioned to create such portraits to record the history of a family and its dynastic rule. Kept in albums, the paintings were housed in royal libraries. The rather stiff formality of this example is typical of the paintings produced for the Mughal court of the early 18th century, and it may have been produced during the short reign of Bahadur Shah (ruled 1707–1712).Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Princely Pursuits: Indian Miniature Painting, Aug. 22 - Nov. 30 2003, pp. 12-13, repr. (col.). (author Carolyn M. Putney)