Portrait of Shuja-ud-Daula, Nawab of Awadh
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, after 1772
India, Faizabad or Lucknow
Edwin Binney 3rd Collection

This wealthy and powerful Nawab, lord or governor in the Urdu language, was from 1753 until 1775 a de facto independent ruler of the region known then as Awadh, a large territory in northern India essentially spanning the modern state of Uttar Pradesh. Both a patron of the arts and an able administrator, Shuja-ud-Daula maintained a vital painting atelier at his court and managed delicate political relations with the Muslim Afghans to the north, the Hindu Marathas to the west, and the British, who had gained control of Bengal to the east.
Recognizing that portrait painting was a mark of prestige among Europeans, Shuja-ud-Daula invited the English academic portraitist Tilly Kettle (1735–86) to come to his court at Faizabad to produce oil paintings of him and his family. Indian artists in the Nawab’s employ, who had been working in the imperial Mughal style, were intrigued by Kettle’s work and made copies on paper of his oil paintings, of which this is one example. (SQ)

Source :
Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition
Conveners: Karen Leonard & Alka Patel
The University of California, Irvine