Netherlands / c. 1656–61
Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Shah Jahan as drawing (Netherlands · c. 1656–61).
WHY IT’S INTERESTING
The Mughal ruler portrayed in this drawing carries a fly swatter in his left hand.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this drawing as pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash and credits Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669).
The museum's collection notes: Rembrandt’s drawing portrays Shah Jahan, the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1628-58. It is one of twenty-three drawings that Rembrandt made after Indian miniatures, which he had very likely studied in an album then in Holland. By the 18th century, the album had been dismantled, and the model for this drawing now resides at the Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna. Rembrandt imposed his characteristic realist tendencies on a more detailed, formal, and stylized model, bringing the shah to life with especially fine pen strokes on the face and shoes mixed with evanescent brown ink washes around the figure that introduce a dynamic interplay of light, shade
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtShah JahanOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.