Warren Hastings meeting the Nawab of Oudh at Lucknow in 1784 - Oil on Canvas.

 

The painting concern an interesting event relating to the last years of Warren Hastings in India. In March 1784 he visited Lucknow and stayed there till August. He was accompanied by David Anderson (Political Agent), William Palmer (Military Secretary), Samuel Toone (Commander of body guard), Stephen Sullivan (Personal Assistant), Jonathan Scott (a learned orientalist author of A Translation of Ferishta’s History of the Deccan), Dr. Balfour (Surgeon at Chunar) and Johan Zoffany. Most of the days Hastings lived in a tent alongside, that of the Nawab. The subject of the painting is a meeting between Prince Jawan Bakht, heir apparent to the Empire and the Governor General.

 

The Prince, a refugee from Delhi, penniless and abandoned, arrived at Lucknow in May 1784. Hastings took pity on the Shahzada whom he described as “an illustration youth – the relic of the most illustrious line of the Eastern World”. He took Zoffany to paint him.

 

Mughal library