According to the diarist Thomas Twining, Abdul Khaliq, the second son of the ‘Tiger of Mysore’ Tipu Sultan, sat for the English portrait miniaturist John Smart, alongside his younger brother Mirza, on 8th August 1792. Twining, who witnessed this event in Madras, wrote that their likenesses were to be sent to their father; indeed, Tipu Sahib when asked if he would like to have his sons’ pictures replied, “Yes…provided they be accompanied by Lord Cornwallis’s.”
Whilst the surviving portraits convey their innocence and suggest that these intimate likenesses were captured under happy conditions, the brothers’ circumstances was far from ordinary.
Lt.-Col. Hubert Oliver Browne-Mason (1872 – 1930), Royal Army Medical Corps, British Indian Army, Cheltenham; thence by descent, until 2023, when bequeathed to
Private collection, England.
Upon Tipu Sultan’s defeat at the Siege of Seringapatam in early 1792, the final battle of the Third Anglo-Mysore War, a peace treaty was drafted by the British; its terms were strict to enforce Tipu, who was one of the last powerful sovereigns in southern India, into relinquishing control of half of Mysore’s territories. A financial settlement had also been agreed, but as Tipu was unable to pay it swiftly, Lord Cornwallis – who was then Governor-General of India - negotiated that Tipu Sultan cede two of his sons to his own care until the treaty’s terms were completely fulfilled.
This event was witnessed, and latterly documented in oils, by Robert Home; the painting has evident tones of propaganda, especially in its emphasis of showing the British as polite and benevolent, but it appears from other testimonies of the time that Abdul and Mirza were genuinely treated like the princes they were.
This unfinished miniature portrait on ivory is an important rediscovery, its existence having not been known until it was recently acquired. Indeed, the preeminent miniature expert Daphne Foskett, in discussing the portraits’ preparatory drawings now kept at the British Museum and referencing Twining’s diary entry, noted: “Whether Tippo Sahib ever saw the drawings we do not know, but they are interesting reminders of the incident. If any miniatures existed, their whereabouts are unknown.” It was always John Smart’s practice to draw his subjects in pencil before painting a finished portrait on ivory; in this instance, the British Museum drawing appears to be the preparatory study for our portrait, although it is dated two years after Smart supposedly met the subjects. It is unclear why our miniature remained unfinished, but it seems likely that it was painting sometime between 8th August 1792 and when Smart left Madras aboard the Melville Castle on 26 April 1795.
The art historian George C. Williamson asserted that “the noblest and most dignified miniatures of the eighteenth century were undoubtedly those painted by John Smart.” Smart was the most sought-after British miniaturist to visit India during the late eighteenth century, a time when his sponsor, the East India Company, was rapidly expanding its interests in the Indian subcontinent. As well as painting miniature portraits of the company’s affluent employees, Smart worked for the court of the Nawab of the Carnatic, the Muslim ruler of the Carnatic region of southern India who were based in Arcot, which was close to the Company’s headquarters in Madras (now Chennai).
Whilst diminutive in scale, this miniature arguably presents its subject with a visual impact far more visceral than one painted in oils on a larger medium. It is interesting to note his working methods when comparing the finish of the preparatory portrait drawing of Abdul Ali Khan (presented nearby), which itself is larger than the finished miniature (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge).