1940s Antique Mughal Miniature Paintings of Emperor Jahangir and Noor Jahan

This Mughal miniature was painted at one of the princely courts of India. It depicts a raven-haired princess in a gold-trimmed saffron-colored silk sari. Under a glowering evening sky she dawdles on a white marble terrace, with a pet fawn on a leash, before a landscape dotted with buildings nestled amongst trees beyond a river. Her hair, falling loosely about her shoulders, rather than carefully dressed on her head, indicates that she is a maiden. The overall mood is one of expectancy. Perhaps walking a pet and catching an evening breeze is a pretext to escape palace scrutiny for a lovers’ assignation. In Mughal India tender sentiments were a bridge to the erotic – and if this seems contradictory, so too is the balance of realism and caricature, and naturalism with the schematic. Both are hallmarks of miniatures painted in this place and time. The earliest Mughal Indian miniatures date to the 16th century. They were inspired by those painted at the refined Moslem courts of the neighboring Persian empire. They incorporated figures in spite of the Moslem faith’s proscription against depicting the human form. Such was the nature of sophisticated courtly life everywhere that beauty and pleasure trumped systems of morality. This was no less the case at the provincial Indian courts, where our miniature, marked by a charming pictorial naiveté, was most likely painted. Yet the artist was undeniably accomplished. His command of perspective, introduced by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century, is seen in the landscape, which rolls back to a distant horizon, contrary to the flat two-dimensional ones following Indian-painting traditions. And if Mughal artists were influenced by Western art, the compliment was returned by Rembrandt and Sir Joshua Reynolds, among others, who collected Indian miniatures (as did, perhaps, Giovanni Bellini who painted in Mughal style the famous miniature of a Persian man...

Loren Maciver (American 1909-1998) drawing of berries conte crayon on pastel paper. APF Matted and framed 13 5/8" x 12 1/2", sight size 8 3/4" x 7 3/4".

Offered here for your consideration is a vintage original Earl MacPherson pastel painting of a pin-up girl. Depicting a blond, smiling, nude pin-up girl dressed only with two larg...

This portrait in pastel represents the confluence of two important artists: C. Katherine Nelson, painter and designer, and her onetime student, Glidden Parker, who became one of Ame...

French 1940s gouache on paper. Custom framed with sandblasted oak frame with acid free paper and UV glass.

French 1940s gouache on paper. Custom framed with sandblasted oak frame with acid free paper and UV glass.

1950s Indian Mughal gouache colorful paper drawing of a hunting party on an antique court fee stamp official paper of the state of Jaipur. Part of a l...

1940s nude male drawings in charcoal matted and framed. These drawings are matted in a neutral color with a rustic wood frame.

Nude Study in Pencil, Europe, 1940s. Beautiful and well drawn study with a male nude kneeling. Wonderful atmosphere and very elegant. At the underside of the paper there are also a few other drawings of...

An antique Indian Mughal School painting, executed in body color on paper, depicting a court scene in the middle. Surrounded by eight portraits of emperors, each meticulously rendered and signed to the side. Dating back to the mid to late 18th century. Framed. Antique Indian Miniature Paintings...