{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O89920"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O89920/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BL1732/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BL1732/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BL1732","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BE7790","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2021MU6791","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O89920/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O89920","accessionNumber":"IS.48:56/A-1956","objectType":"Painting","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This painting depicts a Mughal artist decorating the walls of a pavilion. It was probably done between about 1600 and 1610, and has floral borders added in the 18th century when it was bound in an album with paintings and drawings dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. The album is associated with Robert Clive and is known conventionally as the \"Small Clive Album\".","physicalDescription":"The painting, in opaque watercolour and gold on paper, mounted on an album page depicts a scene in a walled garden with figures. The subject is unusual as it shows an artist within the pavilion to the left painting pictures on the wall.  Two men to the right outside in the garden respectively show their admiration by the elder one holding out an arm in the direction of the painter while the younger one holds a forefinger to his mouth in the  traditional gesture of amazement.  The artist's assistant is seen squatting by a garden pool on the left surrounded by pots of pigment or paint.\r\n     The artist, who is dressed in white with a yellow shawl across his shoulders is delicately picking out a detail  on the mauve <i>jama</i> of the full-length figure he is painting on the main panel of the back wall of the interior of the pavilion, which appears to have a tiled dado below, a decorative band of calligraphy above, over which can be glimpsed the upper compartments which have differently shaped niches holding vessels and a window opening above the central doorway with a decorative border of a landscape with two deer.  The artist is standing on what appears to be matting with a number of pots of paint at his feet which are bare.  The two onlookers have rounded turbans: the older man with a grey beard is holding a small book and wears a loose yellow coat over a blue robe which reveals white tight <i>paijama</i>  and black shoes with small heels as seen in contemporary Persian paintings.  The younger man beside him is wearing a pink <i>jama</i> over his pale yellow <i>paijama</i> and brown slippers.  Both men have short golden <i>patkas</i> tied round their waists: that of the old man has a lattice of quatrefoils abstract motifs on it, while that of the younger man is decorated with scrolls of small red flowers. The young assistant is dressed in red with  a gold narrow <i>patka</i> at his waist and a golden turban with a red-flowered scrolling design.\r\n      The garden in the foreground has hollyhocks and other foliage plants growing either side of a terracotta-sided water channel which flows from the tiled rectangular raised pool on the left.  The dark water is shown rippling along by detailing painted in some metallic medium which catches the light.  The walls of the pavilion are of a light terra cotta colour patterned with a criss-cross design on a base with a scalloped pattern running along  its top edge. The pavilion has a small belvedere on top  built in two tiers.  The lower one is quite plain in grey with a doorway and sloping  buff-coloured eaves.  Above this is a colourful parapet  behind which rises the top tier.  This has a Chinese appearance with green pantiles and unusual shaped eaves in red reminiscent of Chinese cloud shoulder motifs.   The pavilion is slightly raised from the garden on a white terrace with a terra cotta step and low retaining wall. Beyond, the garden continues with flowering trees and a large chinar tree, on which some of the leaves are beginning to take on their autumn tints.  A variety of birds is perched on its branches.  Others fly in the air and one is perched on the decorated parapet wall of the pavilion. The garden is terminated with a tall dark red wall which is contrasted against the golden background above.  This rises to a naturalistic blue and cloudy sky at the top of the painting.\r\n      The painting is framed with a narrow inner border in a faded pinkish orange colour outlined in gold with a stylised foliated floral scroll.  It is mounted on the main ivory-coloured border which is decorated with a row of alternate red poppies and pink lilies outlined and detailed in gold.  The margins of the page have strips of buff-coloured paper pasted on them and a gutter of a woven beige material added for the binding.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"opaque watercolour","id":"x35013"},{"text":"paint","id":"AAT15029"},{"text":"paper","id":"AAT14109"},{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Painted in opaque watercolour and gold on paper","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Books","id":"THES48986"},{"text":"Bonita Trust Indian Paintings Cataloguing Project","id":"THES263148"}],"styles":[{"text":"Mughal","id":"AAT18939"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2006BL1732","2006BE7790","2021MU6791"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"004","id":"THES406584"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Painting","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Mughal Empire","id":"THES262021"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"c.1600-1610","earliest":"1600-01-01","latest":"1610-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Gift of Mr. John Goelet","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"22","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"central painting","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"10.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"central painting","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"35.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"page","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"23.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"page","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"10.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"painting","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"painting, without borders","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"the numeral 56 is inscribed in pencil on the upper right hand corner of the border","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"This page belongs to the \"Small Clive Album\" of Indian paintings which is thought to have been given by Shuja ud-Daula, the Nawab of Avadh, to Lord Clive during his last visit to India in 1765-67. It contains 56 leaves on which are Mughal paintings,  drawings and flower studies on both sides. The binding is covered with an Indian brocade silk that may have been cut from lengths brought home by the 2nd Lord Clive, who served as Governor of Madras, 1799 to 1803.  The album was sold from Powis Castle at Sotheby's sale, 16 to 18 January 1956, lot 332A.","historicalContext":"The bespectacled artist painting the walls of the pavilion is dressed, as he should be according to the <u>Chitrasutra</u>, entirely in white. See Stronge, Susan, <u>Painting for the Mughal Emperor: the Art of the Book 1560-1660, V&A Publications, London, 2002, p.106, plate 73","briefDescription":"Painting, Small Clive Album p. 111, artist decorating inside of pavilion, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Mughal, c. 1600-1610 with 18th century borders","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Qaisar, Ahsan Jan. Building Construction in Mughal India. The Evidence from Painting. Aligarh Muslim University/Oxford University Press Delhi, 1988, pl. 9.\r\nSubhash Parihar, 'Figurative Mughal Murals. Evidence from Miniature Painting', in Roda Ahluwalia, ed. Reflections on Mughal Art & Culture, Niyogi Books/The K.R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai, 2021, pp. 82-103. See fig. 1, p. 82.\r\n\r\n\r\nStronge, Susan, <u>Painting for the Mughal Emperor: The Art of the Book 1560-1660</u>, V&A Publications, London 2002, p.106, plate 73"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"painters","id":"AAT25136"},{"text":"gardens","id":"AAT8090"},{"text":"pavilions (garden structures)","id":"AAT6819"},{"text":"garden","id":"AAT8090"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["IS.48:56/A-1956"],"accessionNumberNum":"48","accessionNumberPrefix":"IS","accessionYear":1956,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-11","recordCreationDate":"2004-01-22","availableToBook":true}}