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An Old Man

Asian Art

Indian portrait paintings often depict their subjects standing in profile against a plain backdrop. In this delicate portrait an unidentified older man wears relatively humble clothing: he lacks jewelry, a sword, or the decorative sash usually sported by courtiers of the period. The emphasis of the painting seems to be on the sensitive rendering of his wrinkled face and on the unusual purple sack that he carries over one shoulder. It is likely that this man was an honored artist or scholar, someone worth celebrating in a courtly portrait but not a member of the aristocracy.
CULTURE Indian
MEDIUM Opaque watercolor on paper
DATES ca. 1730
DIMENSIONS sheet: 9 3/8 x 5 7/16 in. (23.8 x 13.8 cm) image: 7 x 4 7/8 in. (17.8 x 12.4 cm)  (show scale)
INSCRIPTIONS Verso, in English: "the physician to the King (the Great...Akbar?) [these last three words are cut off]
COLLECTIONS Asian Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 32.1322
CREDIT LINE Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Indian. An Old Man, ca. 1730. Opaque watercolor on paper, sheet: 9 3/8 x 5 7/16 in. (23.8 x 13.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, 32.1322 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.1322_IMLS_PS4.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 32.1322_IMLS_PS4.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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