File:A pair of lovers, signed Muhammad Reza Hindi, Afsharid Iran, dated 1162 AH i.e. 1748-49 AD.jpg

English: A PAIR OF LOVERS AND A CALLIGRAPHIC PANEL

THE PAINTING SIGNED MUHAMMAD REZA HINDI, AFSHARID IRAN, DATED AH 1162/1748-49 AD; THE CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED MUHAMMAD SA’ID BIN MUHAMMAD ‘ARIF, INDIA, DATED AH 1122/1710-11 AD

Recto in opaque pigments heightened with gold depicting a pair of lovers in opulent dress on a terrace, a small panel with the signature and date in small nasta’liq in the sky, verso with a bold calligraphic panel with dense lines of stylised black nasta’liq, further smaller lines to each side, signed and dated along the lower edge, laid down within gold illuminated blue and cream borders on pink margins with gold floral illumination Painting 10 ½ x 6 7/8in. (26.5 x 17.6cm.); calligraphy 5 ¼ x 3 ¾in. (13.4 x 9.6cm.); folio 11 3/8 x 6 7/8in. (29 x 17.6cm.)

Muhammad Reza Hindi was an artist active in Iran in the mid eighteenth century. He painted a well-known portrait of the Afsharid ruler, Nadir Shah, circa 1740, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (IM20-1919); published W. Dalrymple and Y. Sharma (eds.), Princes and Painters in Mughal India, 1707-1857, London, 2012, no. 17, p.88, ill. p.89). An Indian aesthetic can be detected in much of his work. It has been suggested that he may have been a Persian artist who migrated to India, or an Indian artist working at the court of Muhammad Shah who was taken by Nadir Shah to Iran after the sack of Delhi in 1739. Our painting, with the lovers in Persian dress and the male figure wearing a Nadir Shah style pointed turban, appears to have been done during the artist’s time in Iran.

Muhammad Reza Hindi is mainly known for his portraits and terrace scenes. A portrait of a scribe seated on a terrace and signed by the artist sold at Sotheby’s London, 25 April 2002, lot 43 and is now in the David Collection, Copenhagen (inv.no. 15/2002). The scribe is depicted as a young man with a hint of a beard and a sparse moustache who looks like a younger version of our male figure. Both figures are seated in similar postures. The comparable striped turbans and depiction of flowers behind the railing of the terrace are also noteworthy. The David Collection painting is dated 1755, shortly after ours. It exhibits both Persian and Indian influences and could have been done in India or Iran.

There is a group of paintings, previously in the collection of Sir Charles Forbes, an East Indian Company official in Bengal from 1765 to 1779, which also bear the artist’s signature (T. Falk and M. Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library, London, 1981, p.121). One of the paintings from the group, dated circa 1763, depicts a nawab of Bengal seated on a terrace with attendants. Falk and Archer suggest that the nawab was possibly the artist’s patron in the early 1760s. (Falk and Archer, op. cit., no.211, p.126, ill.429). Another painting from this group, depicting the same nawab on horseback, sold at auction (Sotheby’s London, Art of Imperial India, 8 October 2014, lot 218). The use of acidic greens, bright orange and gold colours against a grey ground in the equestrian portrait is reminiscent of the palette employed by the artist in our painting.

Other known works by the artist include a posthumous portrait of Emperor Muhammad Shah dated 1764 now in the Cleveland Museum of Art (inv.no.2013.347.a) and two floral studies in the St Petersburg Album (Francesca von Habsburg, et al., The St. Petersburg Muraqqa, Lugano and Milan, 1996, pl.138 and 169, f.79 and 78).