File:Portrait of Muhammad 'Ali Khan, Nawab of Arcot and Prince of the Carnatic (1718-1795) (by John Smart).jpg

English: John Smart

Portrait of Muhammad 'Ali Khan, Nawab of Arcot and Prince of the Carnatic (1718-1795)

signed with initials l.r.: JS / 1791 / I

7.3 by 5.7 cm.; 2 7/8 by 2 1/4 in.

wearing a white muslin jama and a white turban, gold frame

Scion of the Farukhi (Anwariyya) dynasty, Muhammad 'Ali Anwar ud-din Khan Bahadur was born in Delhi in 1723, third son of Jan-i-Jahan, Subadar of the Carnatic. Taking advantage of the diminished power of the Mughal emperors, Muhammad 'Ali wrested control of the southern province of Arcot and endeavoured to exploit, for his own gain, the vying interests of neighbouring Mysore and Hyderabad, the British and the French. Ultimately, however, he got into debt to British moneylenders and as a consequence effectively became a pensioner of the East India Company. In 1777, in a bid to secure favour of the British crown, he sent five magnificent brilliants - the Arcot diamonds - to Queen Charlotte. Although most gratefully received, they apparently did little to further his cause.

Smart arrived in Madras in September 1785 and shortly after was appointed court miniaturist to the Nawab of Arcot. This miniature may be added to eight other portraits of the Nawab by Smart listed by Daphne Foskett (see Foskett 1964, p. 61). Others include an undated wash drawing on paper, which was probably used by the artist as the prototype for all other portraits (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, inv. no. 104-1888), and two that, somewhat curiously, postdate both Smart's departure from India and the sitter's death. Closest to the present miniature is one painted a year later, in 1792, in the collection of Miss F. Jaffé (Foskett 1965, pl. XVII, fig. 62). The depiction of the Nawab in a simple white turban and jama is in marked contrast to the be-jewelled magnificence of the portrait painted by Tilly Kettle some twenty years earlier (Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. I.M. 124-1911).

Like Ozias Humphry, see lots 48 and 49, Smart appears to have found it impossible to be paid in full by his Indian sitters. In May 1804 the Nawab's debt to the artist was registered at £2,504 6s 7d, an amount that represented the principal and interest calculated at 6 per cent per annum since September 1795.