Punjab School Badshahi Mosque, Lahore, Punjab

An original early 19th-century watercolour painting – Punjab School, Badshahi Mosque, Lahore, Punjab.

This wonderful Punjab School watercolour is one of a collection of twenty-one that we have for sale. The collection includes three architectural subjects at Lahore, two Sikh rulers, thirteen figure subjects depicting trades & occupations and three performer figures.

The paintings are in the distinctive 19th-century Punjab School style, with delicate delineation of the figures in brown ink and sensitively rendered facial features, often in profile. The colouring is harmonious and relatively muted when compared with Company School style in general. The hand-painted border on each of the paintings is also distinctive, being gold paint with an outer red and blue line. A similar border can be seen on other Punjab School groups sold at Christie's and Bonhams.

The subjects are distinct too, including landmarks of Lahore, mountain subjects from the Punjab Hills, and Sikh rulers: Maharaja Sher Singh, the fourth Maharaja of the Sikh Empire (1841–43) and Raja Sher Singh Attariwala, commander of the Sikh Khalsa Army.

In watercolour and ink with gold border on cream wove paper watermarked 'J&M 1829'. London Superfine blindstamp at the upper left corner.

The paper is doubly inscribed on the verso, 'Bardshari [sic] the musjid, Lahore' and 'Jamma musjid, Delhi'. The subject is most probably intended to be Lahore, although it does also resemble the architecture of the Jama Masjid on Dehli.