Portrait of Nawab 'Ali Mardan Khan, Mughal India, 18th century Pigments and gold on paper depicting a full-length notable, facing left. He is dressed in a white jama with golden vegetal motifs, and wearing a matching turban adorned with a gold-plated sarpush and an egret. He is armed with two talwars, one in his right hand, pointing to the ground, the second fixed to his belt. Painting mounted on an album page with a border of golden flowers on a blue background and a wide white margin speckled with gold. In the margin, illuminated cartouche inscribed in nasta'liq in black letters with the name of the subject: "Tasvir Navab 'Ali - Mardan Khan". Page size : 32 x 22,8 cm ; painting size : 21 x 12,4 cm Formerly enlarged, pencilled on the back with a legend and the number 47, some stains and jumps of polychromy. Provenance: Probably Sir Elijah Impey Collection, 18th century - Pozzi Collection. Exhibition : Indian and Oriental Miniatures, Palais Galliera, Paris, December 5, 1970, n°24. 'Ali Mardan Khan (d. 1657) was a politician of Kurdish origin who served in the Safavid administration of rulers Shah Abbas and Shah Safi before serving the Mughal administration after the defeat of Qandahar in 1638 against the Mughals. If this page does not show an owner's stamp, its wide gold-flecked margin illuminated with a gilded cartouche with flowered ends naming the subject allows it to be linked to the famous "Hosn" album compiled by Sir Elijah Impey, Chief Justice of Bengal in Calcutta from 1774 to 1785 and a great lover of Indian painting. The name "Hosn" given to this album means "Beauty" and comes from the name given to a symbolic female figure represented in some miniatures. The compilation, for reasons still unknown, arrived in France at the end of the 19th century and its pages were dispersed and sold separately. The Jean Pozzi collection to which this page belonged later included other pages of the album (cf. Mes Rheims et Laurin, Miniatures indiennes et orientales, Palais Galliera, Paris, 5 December 1970, n°17-20, 71, 82). A Mughal Portrait of the Nawab 'Ali Mardan Khan, 18th century Private collection from 1975 to 2000 - first part (lots 120 to 173).