Prince Sulaiman Shikoh and his tutor (drawing)

Prince Sulaiman Shikoh & his tutor. Boy, kneeling on left, faces his tutor, a cleric with beard and turban. Between them is a book resting on a book-stand (rahla).
Ink drawing with some colour and gold, on paper, signed by miir Hashiim. Mounted on card, with coloured floral borders, on verso calligraphy in nastagaliik/divaanii.
In this Mughal court drawing Prince Sulaiman, a grandson of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, is shown studying with a tutor. Their finely drawn faces are portrayed in profile in conventional court style but we are left in no doubt that this is a portrait of real people drawn from life. About fifty years before this was made, artists in the Mughal court had made the radical breakthrough of perfecting true likenesses of courtiers and their servants.