Album page with the portrait of Muhammad Bahadur Shah, Mughal India, 19th century Gouache and gold on paper depicting Mughal Emperor Muhammad Bahadur Shah standing, facing right, presenting a carnation in his left hand. He is wearing a purple turban with an egret and a white jama decorated with purple flowers and a richly decorated floral belt. He is armed with a talwar on which his right hand rests and a khanjar slipped into his belt. Painting mounted on an album page with a blue frame painted with gold of a wavy floral stem, and a wide margin with painted decoration of blooming irises. In the upper part, Arabic inscription in black ink: "Muhammad Mu'azzam Bahadur Shah", and Nagari inscription in the lower part. On the reverse side, a quatrain in Persian nasta'liq calligraphy in black ink in four oblique lines on a background of floral stems animated by a bird and framed by two lines in horizontal cartouches, the spandrels illuminated in gold and in polychrome with a fleuron on a semis of flowers. Salmon border painted in gold of a wavy floral stem and wide margin of blue paper decorated with yellow flowers in reserve. Total size with frame : 61 x 44,1 cm ; page at sight : 21,4 x 14,5 cm ; painting at sight : 12,5 x 6,7 cm Some polychromy jumps and stains. A second fragmentary portrait of Bahadur Shah drawn in ink enhanced with gold and polychrome, India, late 19th century. Sight size : 15,1 x 5,7 cm ; cut and damaged. Bahadur Shah I also known as Muhammad Mu'azzam was the eighth Mughal emperor and reigned from 1707 to 1712. Several portraits of him are known, including the one in the Johnson Album in the British Library in London (Johnson Album 2, 7), which may have inspired this one, due to its hieratic position and the way the ruler is dressed. A Mughal Portrait of Muhammad Bahadur Shah, India, 19th century