Nineteen small portraits of Timurid and Mughal rulers, possibly commissioned by the French Resident Colonel Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gentil (1726–1799) while serving at the court of Nawab Shuja ud-Daula in Oudh

Oudh, probably Faizabad, circa 1774-75

Footnotes

The nineteen portraits here appear to be closely related to likenesses used to illustrate Gentil's Abrégé historique des souverains de l'Indoustan ou Empire Mogol (History of the rulers of Hindustan or the Mughal Empire) completed in 1772. They are the work of a single artist, who has depicted the first eight rulers in the dynasty (up to and including Akbar) in three-quarter profile and the remaining eleven side-on. In this latter group (as well as with Akbar's portrait), we see a direct stylistic connection with those that appear in Abrégé historique. Additionally, the spellings of the emperors' names largely match those found in both Abrégé historique and a separate album of twenty paintings of Mughal emperors compiled by Gentil.

Each of the rulers in the set is identified with an inscription in a French hand (perhaps that of Gentil himself). They present an almost unbroken list of the Timurid-Mughal sovereigns of India beginning with Timur and ending with Shah Alam II. They are as follows:

Tamerlan 1: Timur/Tamerlane (reg. 1370–1405)
Mirancha: Miran Shah
Sultan Mahmoud: Sultan Muhammad Mirza
Aboussaid: Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza (reg. 1452–19)
Omarchek: Umar Shaykh Mirza (reg. 1469–94)
Babourcha: Babur (reg. 1494–1530)
Oumahioun: Humayun (reg. 1530–40, 1555–56)
Akbar: Akbar (reg. 1556–1605)
Djehanjuir: Jahangir (reg. 1605–27)
Chadjehan: Shah Jahan (reg. 1627–58)
Alemguir 1er: Aurangzab, Alamgir I (reg. 1658–1707)
Bahadourcha: Bahadur Shah, Shah Alam I (reg. 1707–12)
Mouiezeaudin: Muiz ud-Din Muhammad, Jahandar Shah (reg. 1712–13)
Rafioderdjat: Rafi ud-Darajat (reg. 1719)
Rafioul daula, Chadjehan 2: Mirza Rafi ud-Daulah, Shah Jahan II (reg. 1719)
Mametcha: Muhammad Shah (reg. 1719–48)
Ametcha: Ahmad Shah (reg. 1748–54)
Alemguir 2: 'Alamgir II (reg. 1754–59)
Chaalem 2: Shah Alam II (reg. 1760–1806)


Gentil was a French military officer who served in the French East India Company (or Compagnie des Indes Orientales), and spent nearly twenty-six years in India after his arrival in Pondicherry in 1752. Gentil went on to live in Hyderabad, Bengal and then Awadh, where he served Nawab Shuja ud-Daula as an adviser. Gentil was awarded with the title of French Resident of the court at Awadh and served in a military, political and strategic capacity until the death of Shuja ud-Daula in 1775. Following a three-year stint in West Bengal, Gentil eventually returned to France in 1778, though he was recalled to service to act as interpreter to Tipu Sultan's embassy to Versailles in 1787.

Like Antoine Polier and Claude Martin, Gentil was one of several European military advisors and connoisseurs closely connected with the court of Nawab Shuja ud-Daula in Awadh. He had a keen interest in the cultures, religions, customs and architecture of the people of India, and established a private atelier employing several Indian artists to help illustrate this. He also collected numerous Indian and Persian miniatures and paintings in what would now be called Company style. At the time of his return to France, his collection comprised more than fourteen albums, as well as over a hundred Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit manuscripts on law, poetry and calligraphy, as well as numerous individual paintings. Presented to Louis XVI for the Royal Library, the Gentil collection today forms the core of the South Asian Collection in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris today.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has an album put together by Gentil with 58 pages of paintings by various artists including Nevasi Lal and Mohan Singh, produced in Faizabad in 1774. To quote Archer, it 'contains a collection of drawings depicting the manners and customs of the people of India [...] and appears to be a compilation of Gentil's library of books in Faizabad, now scattered. It is clear that Gentil supervised and designed the album himself, dividing the pages into rectangles, some of which he faintly inscribed in pencil with the names of the subjects which he wanted the artists to include'. See M. Archer, Company Paintings, London 1992, p. 117ff., no. 89: especially to be noted are figs. 89(16) and (20), p. 120, showing figures, both Indian and British, drawn in a similar style.

For a rare copy of one of Gentil's manuscripts, see Christie's, Paris, 22nd October 2013, Bibliotheque de Ducs de Luynes, Chateau Dampierre, lot 527: Abrégé historique des Souverains de l'Indoustan ou Empire Mogol– 1772 – à Faizabad par M. Gentil, Faizabad, 1773, with illustrations of Shah Alam II, a map of the provinces of Hindustan, with 238 pages.