Portrait for Akhter Mahal Begam wife of Bahadur Shah II Delhi, by the artists Mahmud Faizul and his pupil, Asmuddin, circa 1900, after originals of 1840-50

Footnotes:

1. Portrait of Aktar Mahal, Painted by Mahmud Faizul, artist, Delhi, about 1825.

Backboard:

1. Painted by Mahmud Faizul, portrait of Persian wife of Bahadur Shah II, Akhtar Mahal.

Emily Eden, writing in 1839, had commented on the skill of Delhi artists, including Azim, who is perhaps the grandfather of the artists of these paintings:

I had two Delhi miniature painters here, translating two of my sketches on to ivory and I never saw anything so perfect as their copy of Runjeet Singh. Azim, the best painter, is almost a genius except that he knows no perspective, so he can only copy [...] Their miniatures are so soft and beautiful. (Up The Country, quoted in M. Archer, Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period, London 1992, p. 217).

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