Portrait of Begum Hazrat Mahal (1820-1879), from the Mirza Birjis Qadr Album

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Portrait of Begum Hazrat Mahal (1820-1879), from the Mirza Birjis Qadr Album. Described as an album, this group of 29 drawings offers a series of portraits with closely-drawn faces and often more loosely sketched bodies. The original patron of the series is not known. However they have been linked with the brief and contested rule of Mirza Birjis Qadr as nawab of Lucknow (Mirza Muhammad Ramzan `Ali Bahadur, 1845-1893, r. 1857-8), because this portrait identifies his mother Begum Hazrat Mahal, the "regent of Mirza Qadr". As the prince's regent, she resisted East India Company forces during the 1857-8 rebellion against British rule, before her retreat to Nepal. Drawing, graphite on paper, portrait of a young woman seated with one knee raised, inscribed in Persian (on verso) "Hazrat Mahal, mother of Mirza Qadr", folio from the Mirza Birjis Qadr Album, unsigned, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, undated, c. 1850-1858.