Husain Ali Khan Entertaining His Brothers (The Sayyid Brothers) (c. 1712–19): Art, History and Details

Husain Ali Khan Entertaining His Brothers (The Sayyid Brothers) (c. 1712–19) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The shrewd imperial oligarch smoking the hookah and his brothers ran the Mughal government after the death of Emperor Alamgir in 1707 until the rise of Emperor Muhammad Shah in 1719. They were ruthless, self-serving kingmakers who caused the assassinations and accessions of six different members of the royal family to the Mughal throne in Delhi. The two attendants behind him exchange a worried glance, and the rare use of a flat gray sky behind the white marble terrace suggests the artist’s mood about the future strength and prosperity of the empire.

Object facts

• Title: Husain Ali Khan Entertaining His Brothers (The Sayyid Brothers)
• Date: c. 1712–19
• Culture: India, Mughal Dynasty (1526-1756)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 30.8 x 30.5 cm (12 1/8 x 12 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.334

A detail from the museum

The man shown smoking a hookah is the Mughal imperial ruler.

Collection credit

Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.