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{{Short description|Indian painter (fl.1817–1852)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2018}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2014}}

{{Infobox person
| name = Ghulam Ali Khan
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date =
| birth_place = [[Delhi]]
| death_date = {{circa|19th century}}
| death_place = [[Delhi]]
| known_for = Topographical paintings, portraits
| style = [[Company style]]
| notable_works = {{plainlist|

* [[Bahadur Shah Zafar]] accession portraits
* [[Gulistan (book)|Gulistan]]
* [[Delhi Book]]
* [[Fraser Album]]
}}
| signature =
}}
'''Ghulam Ali Khan''' was a nineteenth century Indian painter in [[Delhi]].<ref>{{cite web|author=William Dalrymple |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/aug/16/art.highereducation |title=William Dalrymple on The Dehlie Book | Art and design |publisher=The Guardian |date= |accessdate=2014-02-20}}</ref> His painting career took place over the course of more than four decades, from 1817 to 1852.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Losty|first=Jeremiah|title=Two Important Late Mughal Group Portraits|url=https://www.academia.edu/6310091/Two_Important_Late_Mughal_Group_Portraits|journal=Booklet published by Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch, London, 2014|language=en}}</ref> He was the last royal Mughal painter, and also painted in the [[Company style]] for British patrons.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/arts/design/princes-and-painters-in-mughal-delhi-at-asia-society.html?_r=0|title=Scenes From a Dying Empire|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|accessdate=2014-02-20}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Ghulam Ali Khan was born in the late eighteenth century.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last=Sharma|first=Yuthika|title=In the Company of the Mughal Court, the Delhi Painter Ghulam Ali Khan|url=https://www.academia.edu/9426054/In_the_Company_of_the_Mughal_Court_the_Delhi_Painter_Ghulam_Ali_Khan|journal=W Dalrymple and Y Sharma, Eds. Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi 1707-1857, Yale University Press|language=en}}</ref> At this time, [[Shah Alam II]] presided over the Mughal Empire, but in 1803 the British occupied Delhi.<ref name=":12">{{cite book | first = Chanchal B. | last = Dadlani | title=From Stone to Paper: Architecture as History in the Late Mughal Empire | chapter=Chapter 5: Mughal Architecture Between Manuscript and Print Culture | publisher=Yale University Press | year=2019 | doi=10.37862/aaeportal.00054.009 | isbn=978-0-300-25096-1 | oclc=1119732043 | publication-place=New Haven }}</ref> Khan grew up and worked in a society that included Mughal and British cultures. He was the nephew of noted Mughal painter, [[Ghulam Murtaza Khan]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Vakkalanka|first=Harshini|date=2013-02-06|title=Art and an empire|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/art-and-an-empire/article4384080.ece|access-date=2014-02-20|issn=0971-751X}}</ref>

== Career ==
[[File:Diwan-i-Khas, Red Fort, Delhi with red awnings or shamianas, in 1817.jpg|thumb|View ''Diwan-i-Khas, Red Fort, Delhi with red awnings or shamianas'', painted by Ghulam Ali Khan in 1817]]
Ghulam Ali Khan was the court painter of [[Mughal emperor|Mughal emperors]] [[Akbar II]] (reigned 1806–1837 CE) and [[Bahadur Shah II]] (reigned 1837–1858 CE) in Delhi.<ref name=":02" /> As well as working for the royal Mughal court, Ghulam Ali Khan received commissions from British officers in the [[East India Company]] -- particularly Colonel [[James Skinner (East India Company officer)|James Skinner]] and officer [[William Fraser (British India civil servant)|William Fraser]] -- and from regional courts, such as the court of [[Jhajjar]] and [[Alwar]]. His artwork conveyed [[picturesque]] aesthetics and incorporated a Mughal painting style (such as in royal portraiture)<ref name=":12" /> with the more European Company Style.

=== Painting Members of the Mughal Court ===
[[File:The Emperor Bahadur Shah II Enthroned.jpg|thumb|''Bahadur Shah II enthroned with Mirza Fakhruddin'', painted by Ghulam Ali Khan in 1837-38]]
In the nineteenth century there was a shift in Mughal manuscript iconography that gave greater emphasis to architectural representation.<ref name=":12" /> The first artwork attributed to Ghulam Ali Khan is ''The'' ''Diwan-i Khan in the palace in the Delhi Fort [Red Fort]'' from 1817''.''<ref name=":02" /> The red tent in this watercolor serves as a stand-in for the emperor in his absence. He was a formal court painter since 1827 when he produced portraits for Akbar II and his son Mirza Salim.<ref name=":0" /> Khan signed these two portraits as "His Majesty's Painter" and "His Majesty's devoted faithful servant."<ref name=":02" /> A decade later in 1837 Khan painted the accession portraits of Bahadur Shah with his sons<ref name=":0" /> where they are set against the backdrop of the fireplace from the Zafar Mahal.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Paliwal|first=Amita|date=2014|title=ZAFAR MAHAL: EXPLORING THE HISTORY OF LATE MUGHAL ARCHITECTURE|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44158495|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=75|pages=1081–1089|issn=2249-1937}}</ref> He collaborated on the ''Portraits of the Exalted Emperors'', producing the visual imperial genealogy in 1851.<ref name=":02" /> Other subject matter included painting high class courtesans, ''tawaifs'', such as those featured in ''Mirza Fakhruddin entertained by musicians in a salon at the Zafar Mahal'', 1852.<ref name=":0" />

=== Painting Beyond the Mughal Court ===
In 1827, Khan worked on a three-part painting series for Colonel Skinner memorializing portraits of Skinner's cavalry for a private album.<ref name=":02" /> These paintings were done in watercolor and gouache.<ref name=":0" /> Khan painted for Skinner again completing a portrait of the colonel in 1830.<ref name=":02" /> He participated in the [[Fraser Album]] project which was a collection of Delhi genre paintings.

Ghulam Ali Khan's patronage continued expanding beyond Delhi especially in the 1840s.<ref name=":0" /> From 1840-1853, Khan participated in the illuminating of the ''[[Gulistan (book)|Gulistan]]'' (also known as the ''Golestan'') manuscript for the [[Raja]] of Alwar. In the meantime, from 1840-1845 Khan also completed the watercolor of the Alwar ''gaddi'' for Banni Singh.<ref name=":02" /> He painted other commissions for the Alwar court, and he taught at the Alwar school of painting. His compositions featured the [[Nawab]]'Abd al-Rahman Khan (e.g. ''Nawab 'Abd al-Rahman Khan in court with the envoy of the Raja of Alwar, Capt. Alexander Heatherly'', 1852) and the Nawab of Jhajjar (such as in ''Nawab of Jhajjar astride a pet tiger,'' 1849-50).<ref name=":0" />

== Works ==

<gallery>
File:A tiger hunt at Jhajjar, Rohtak District, Panjab.jpg|A tiger hunt, 1820 (Victoria & Albert Museum)
File:Thakur Dawlat Singh Among Courtiers.jpg|Thakur Dawlat Singh among Courtiers, 1825 (David Collection)
File:Ghulam Ali Khan 003b.jpg|View of the Red Fort, from Sketches of The Delhee Palace & Delhee, 1854
File:Two miniatures. ‘Kala with Saber Drawn’ and ‘Kala in Uniform’.jpg|Kala, the Sepoy, with Saber Drawn and in Uniform. Two miniatures from the [[Fraser Album]], from the workshop of Ghulam Ali Khan Family. Delhi, 1815-1816. [[The David Collection]]
File:Five Recruits- Ummee Chund, Indur, Goolzaree, Bukhtawur and Juhaz - Google Art Project.jpg|Five Recruits - Ummee Chund, Indur, Goolzaree, Kukhtawur, and Juhaz; from the Fraser Album, ca. 1816 (Freer Gallery)
File:Akbar II (1806-37).jpg|Portrait of Akbar II, 1827 (British Library)
</gallery>

== See also ==

* [[Fraser Album]]
* [[Delhi Book]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==

* {{cite book|first=Linda York |last=Leach|title=Paintings from India|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=ZqmHQgAACAAJ|page=161}}|year=1998|publisher=Nour Foundation|isbn=978-0-19-727629-7|pp=1610163}}
* {{cite book|first=William |last=Dalrymple|title=Princes and Painters: In Mughal Delhi 1707-1857|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=zdQDAQAAQBAJ |page=41}}|date=15 July 2013|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-93-5118-173-6 |pp=41–51}}
* {{cite book|first1=Jeremiah P. |last1=Losty|first2=Malini |last2=Roy|title=Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire : Manuscripts and Paintings in the British Library|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=BDl3MAEACAAJ |page=217}}|year=2012|publisher=British Library|isbn=978-0-7123-5871-2 |pp=217–220}}

== External links ==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Ghulam Ali}}
[[Category:Painters from the Mughal Empire]]
[[Category:Indian male painters]]
[[Category:Indian portrait painters]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian painters]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian male artists]]
[[Category:Painters from Delhi]]
[[Category:19th-century Mughal Empire people]]

Ghulam Ali Khan - Revision history

Ayurtreatservices at 02:27, 25 July 2024