Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 277
An Akali-Nihang armed with a matchlock on horseback Punjab, probably Lahore, circle of the artist Imam Bakhsh Lahori, circa 1830-40
22 May 2025, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £4,864 inc. premium
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Oliver White
Head of Department
An Akali-Nihang armed with a matchlock on horseback
Punjab, probably Lahore, circle of the artist Imam Bakhsh Lahori, circa 1830-40
Punjab, probably Lahore, circle of the artist Imam Bakhsh Lahori, circa 1830-40
gouache on watermarked paper, brown margin rule, inscribed in English in lower border
190 x 250 mm.
190 x 250 mm.
Footnotes
Provenance
Formerly in a collection in Connecticut, USA.
The English inscription reads: A Mounted Akali (or immortal).
This heavily-armed warrior carries a matchlock rifle, sword, pistol and shield, a quoit around his neck and several more in his turban along with a set of tiger claws. Our painting is closely related to an engraving of a 'Nahang, or Akalee' in Honigberger's Thirty-Five Years in the East (1852), which was very probably after a painting by the artist Imam Bakhsh Lahori. Plates VIII-XI in the book were all very probably based on his work, according to Honigberger, who commented that they were 'faithful copies of Portraits and Sketches, taken by a native at Lahore' (p. 195.)
For a general discussion of the artist's career and work, see J.-M. Lafont, B. Schmitz, 'The Painter Imam Bakhsh of Lahore', in B. Schmitz (ed.), After the Great Mughals: Painting in Delhi and the Regional Courts in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Bombay 2002, pp. 74-99; and pp. 81-82 for his probable work on the illustrations for Honigberger's work.