Portrait of Sayyid Mirza Azim Beg - 1825

This Company painting is possibly by Ghulam Ali Khan, a well-known Delhi artist and brother of another Company painter, Faiz Ali Khan. It depicts the centenarian Sayyid Mirza Azim Beg of Hansi, near Delhi, seated cross-legged on a cane stool. A Persian inscription on the back of the painting states that it is a 'likeness of Mirza Azim Beg, Jagirdar of Hansi...and his age was one hundred and nine years'. An English inscription, also on the back, gives his age as 100. The figure is dressed in white and wears a black embroidered Kashmir shawl with a design of the type brought back to England by William Moorcroft in 1823.

'Company paintings' were produced by Indian artists for Europeans living and working in the Indian subcontinent, especially British employees of the East India Company. They represent a fusion of traditional Indian artistic styles with conventions and technical features borrowed from western art. Some Company paintings were specially commissioned, while others were virtually mass-produced and could be purchased in bazaars.

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