Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010964Shah Jahan
About the Artwork
Rembrandt’s drawing portrays Shah Jahan, the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1628-58. It is one of twenty-three drawings that Rembrandt made after Indian miniatures, which he had very likely studied in an album then in Holland. By the 18th century, the album had been dismantled, and the model for this drawing now resides at the Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna. Rembrandt imposed his characteristic realist tendencies on a more detailed, formal, and stylized model, bringing the shah to life with especially fine pen strokes on the face and shoes mixed with evanescent brown ink washes around the figure that introduce a dynamic interplay of light, shade, and figure. Above the shah’s head, he scratched away parts of the ink and paper to create a nimbus shape that frames the profile. His meticulous technique and use of a rare and expensive Japanese paper suggest that he regarded his drawings after Mughal paintings as exceptional.
Inscriptions
On verso of secondary support, upper center, in graphite: Portrait of; upper center, in brown ink: Portrait of Sháh Jahán Emperor of Hindustan [inscription in English] / Shah Jahan Padshah [inscription in Persian]; upper right, in graphite: Ouseley / written by Sir Gore Ou[seley] 1809; lower left, in graphite: 334; fragment of old mount (now removed), in blue pencil: 3[crossed out with black ink]; fragment of old mount (now removed), in gray ink: Portrait of Sháh Jehán / Emperor of Hindûstan; in black ink: 5[written over 5 in graphite] Indian Prince [underlined]
Provenance
?-1747: Jonathan Richardson, Sr., London, 1665-1745 (Lugt 2184); his mount; his sale, Cock, London, 22 January-11 February 1747, lot 70 "a book of Indian Drawings, 25 in number" ?-1926: Peregrine Cust, 6th Lord Brownlow, Belton House, Grantham, 1899-1978; his sale, Sotheby's, London 29 June 1926, lot 25, to Duveen 1926: with Joseph Duveen, London c. 1926-1932: Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner, Detroit, 1880-1958; his sale, Mensing, Amsterdam, 25 October 1932, lot 12 c. 1932-1978: Robert von Hirsch, Frankfurt and Basel, 1883-1977; his sale, Sotheby's, London, 20 June 1978, lot 38; to Cleveland Museum of Art 1978-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Italian Drawings with von Hirsh Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 15-December 4, 1978). Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979). Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980). Seventeenth Century Netherlandish Graphics. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-August 1, 1982). The Twain Shall Meet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 1985-January 5, 1986). Romance of the Taj Mahal. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (December 17-March 11, 1989); The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (April 28-June 24, 1990); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (August 23-November 25, 1990). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). Rembrandt in America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 19-May 28, 2012). Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (March 13-June 24, 2018).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669)
- Date
- c. 1656–61
- Medium
- pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 22.5 x 17.1 cm (8 7/8 x 6 3/4 in.); Secondary Support: 27.6 x 22.4 cm (10 7/8 x 8 13/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Accession no.
- 1978.38
More by Rembrandt van Rijn in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00010964
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