A Fraser Album Artist: a cotton-carder at work, attributed to the artist Ghulam 'Ali Khan (fl. 1817-55)
Delhi, circa 1820

Black chalk and watercolour heightened with white on paper, two inscriptions in Persian at upper centre, framed.

The inscriptions both read:
Raza'u, inhabitant of Jansuth, carding cotton. The name Raza'u may derive from raza'i, a quilt stuffed with fluffed cotton.

This detailed and technically accurate painting shows a captured moment from daily life, and appropriately it was originally attached, on a single sheet, to another work depicting a carpenter (the two shown together in Archer and Falk, op. cit., and sold as such in the Sotheby's 1980 sale). The action depicted is in fact strictly referred to as 'bowing', running the taut string of the bow across the pile of fibres to fluff up the cotton (seen on the right in the picture).

Ghulam 'Ali Khan was one of the foremost painters in Delhi in the first half of the 19th Century, and was employed by the royal households of both Akbar II (reg. 1806-37) and Bahadur Shah II (reg. 1837-58). His oeuvre encompassed portraits and topographical views. He also ranged further afield, working for more than ten years at the courts of Jhajjar and the Alwar court of Raja Baani Singh. After portraits of the penultimate Mughal Emperor, Akbar II, Ghulam 'Ali Khan was commissioned to paint the important accession portrait of Bahadur Shah II enthroned (versions of which are in the Smithsonian, Washington DC, and in the Nasser D. Khalili collection, London). However, there is some suggestion that many of the works in the Fraser Album, including the present lot, should be attributed to an older member of the Ghulam 'Ali Khan family, given his apparently greater confidence in figural studies at this early date. Losty and Roy (op. cit. below, p. 218) argue that because of the relative weakness of the figures (when compared with the great skill in architectural portrayal) in early works, Ghulam 'Ali Khan cannot be the major artist of the Fraser Album. But as B. N. Goswamy observes (referring also to the Skinner Album): 'Who the painter of these portraits was remains unknown. Not all of the works could have been the work of one man, considering the differences in hand and approach. Archer and Falk see the Fraser portraits as falling into different groups: some attributable to 'the first artist', some to Ghulam 'Ali Khan, and other groups, like those of Delhi merchants, to still other artists. It is difficult to be certain.' (p. 777).

Source: Bonhams