Portrait of a man, from the Mirza Birjis Qadr Album

Unknown

Portrait of a man, 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. 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 the portrait of his mother Begum Hazrat Mahal (1820-1879) notes that she is the "regent of Mirza Qadr". The original patron of the series is not known. Drawing, graphite on paper, bust portrait of a man, folio from the Mirza Birjis Qadr Album, unsigned, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, undated, c. 1850-1858.