Painting

The portrait of an unknown man by Isaac Oliver of ca. 1595 is contained within a later painted frame done by an Indian artist, probably in the third quarter of the 18th century. Such portraits were known to have arrived at the Mughal court in the early 17th century, as recorded by the first English ambassador to India, Sir Thomas Roe. He showed the emperor Jahangir a miniature portrait of a woman by the artist, which was then famously copied by Jahangir's leading artist in five almost indistinguishable versions over several weeks in 1616. It is not known when this particular portrait arrived in India, or who it depicts. It is plausible that it may have belonged to one of the Mughal emperors, though there is no proof. With the decline of Mughal power from the late 17th century, the imperial collections began to be dispersed, and by the 18th century many former royal treasures entered other collections in the subcontinent.