The sage teaching a young prince, page probably from the Sma - Lot 175

The sage teaching a young prince, page probably from the Small Clive Album, Mughal India, late 18th century Gouache and gold on paper depicting a young prince wearing a white turban matching his dhoti, taking notes and listening attentively to the words of the bearded sage opposite him, dressed entirely in pink. Both are kneeling on a palmette-decorated carpet on which are placed an inkwell, pen tray and books, and around them, two other turbaned men, including a mullah, watch the scene. Trays of fruit, a dervish's walking stick, a jar and a cat furnish the foreground. The scene takes place on a terrace on the banks of a river, where a sailboat is sailing under a stormy sky. It is framed by a border decorated with a wavy stem trimmed with golden palms and a margin alternating red poppies and pink lilies with golden outlines on an ivory background. On the reverse, gouache depicting an orange lily stem with three blooming flowers and two budding flowers. Dim. painting of scene: 15.3 x 11.5 cm; dim. painting of lily: 16.8 cm x 10.3 cm; dim. page: 35.7 x 23.6 cm Some freckling, polychromatic shifts, wear, a fold on the mullah scene, several restored accidents on the sheaf of lilies. Provenance : Sotheby's sale, London, December 17, 1969, lot 11. The floral margin framing the animated scene can be found on several pages of the Small Clive Album in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It is identical, for example, to page 31 of the same album (IS.48:16/A-1956), whose dimensions are close to those of our own. As for the lily painting, it is close to another depiction of lilies in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (IS.48:1/A-1956), which is attributed to Lucknow and described as coming from this album. The Small Clive Album is a 56-page album said to have been presented by Shuja ud-Dawla, Nawab of Avadh to the British Lord Clive, on his last visit to India in 1765-67. Each page is illustrated on both sides with Indian paintings, drawings and flower studies. The album, formerly bound in silk brocade, was sold by Powis Castle at Sotheby's, London, January 16-18, 1956 (lot 332 A). Paris private collection, lots 166 to 193.