#balchand

Shah Shuja', Aurangzeb and Murad Bakhsh

Place of origin: Mughal Empire (made)Date: ca. 1635 (made)Artist/Maker: Balchand (made)Materials and Techniques: Painted in opaque watercolour and gold on paper

This painting depicts three sons of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658). They are identified in the Persian inscription in the border beneath, which states that these are the likenesses of Shah Shuja' Bahadur, Aurangzeb Bahadur and Murad Bakhsh, and that it is the work of the artist Balchand. The artist's own faint signature is discernible on the white tree trunk behind the princes. The painting has the floral borders characteristic of the albums of Shah Jahan which contained folios with paintings on one side and specimens of fine calligraphy on the other.

The folio is from a group of paintings acquired at auction in 1925 where they were sold as "The Minto Album" and subsequently divided between the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin and the V&A.

Dying Inayat Khan

Balchand

India, Mughal, 1618 - 1619

Balchand

Madonna, after Julius Goltzius or Hieronymus Wierix (1553-1619)

India (c. 1650-1700)

from Wie die islamische Kunst nach Berlin kam (How Islamic art came to Berlin) 

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Pergamonmuseum)