Some Unexpected Sources for Paintings by the Artist Mihr Chand (fl.c.1759–86), Son of Ganga Ram

Abstract

• Scholars have acknowledged that Mihr Chand, son of Ganga Ram (flourished c. 1759–86) is one of the finest artists to have flourished in the Mughal province of Awadh, at Faizabad and Lucknow, during the second half of the eighteenth century. Whilst it has been known that Mihr Chand received patronage from the British East India Company officer Antoine Polier (1741–95) and that the majority of his known works have been identified within the Polier-Hamilton collection at the Museum for Islamic Art in Berlin, very little investigative research has been undertaken that would identify the artist's career path and deconstruct his painterly style. Through comparative analysis of the collections amassed by Antoine Polier and his contemporaries, new information has come to light which identifies Mihr Chand's source material that inspired six of his oeuvres in the Polier-Hamilton albums.