Posthumous portrait of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (reigned 1719–1748) holding a falcon (recto)

Also known as: A Portrait of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah (r. 1719-1748) Holding a Falcon; A portrait of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (reigned 1719-1748) holding a falcon

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About the Artwork

The artist used the carpet, the floor cushion, and the halo to indicate the royal status of the seated figure. He has turned the picture plane into the space of a window, over the sill of which a golden carpet ornamented with a field of lilies marks his location for outsiders. His signature in Persian, the Mughal lingua franca, interrupts the fringed border. Painted after the emperor’s death and the dissolution of much of the Mughal court, this refined portrait pays tribute to the wealth and power of the imperial past.

Inscriptions

raqam-i kamtarin Muhammad Reza-i Hindi; tasvir Muhammad Shah Padshah Ghazi

Provenance

before 1811–1849: Sir Charles Forbes, 7th Baronet [1773–1849], Bengal, London, and Scotland, by descent to his great-grandson, Colonel Sir John Forbes ?–1962: Colonel Sir John Stewart Forbes [1901–1984], Baronet, DSO, DL, Allargue House, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK, consigned to Sotheby's London for sale December 10, 1962: (Sotheby’s, London, Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 10 December 1962, lot 25, sold to Ralph Benkaim) 1962–2013: Ralph Benkaim [1914–2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art 2013–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016). Carpets and Canopies in Mughal India (Indian art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 22-September 8, 2024).

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

Quick Overview

Artist: Muhammad Rizavi Hindi (Indian, active mid-1700s)
Date: 1764
Medium: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Dimensions: Painting only: 14.4 x 10.3 cm (5 11/16 x 4 1/16 in.); Page: 28 x 23.8 cm (11 x 9 3/8 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line: Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
Accession no.: 2013.347.a

More by Muhammad Rizavi Hindi in museum collections

Posthumous portrait of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (reigned 1719–1748) holding a falcon (recto); Calligraphy (verso)
Muhammad Rizavi Hindi
1764 · Painting
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009685