A Mughal courtier in Delhi, circa 1820s.

 

This hand-coloured engraving depicts a Mughal courtier in Delhi during the reign of Akbar Shah II, likely from the 1820s. At first glance, it appears to be a straightforward representation—but the image carries with it a layered history of reproduction and imagination.

What we see is not an original but a copy—twice removed—from a scene never directly witnessed by its final engraver. The French artist Choubard created this version for a European audience enthralled by tales of the opulent court of the "Great Mogul." His work was based on an earlier engraving by J. Massard, who in turn copied a sketch by Bishop Reginald Heber, the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta. Heber had visited Delhi in the 1820s and recorded his impressions of Delhi and the waning Mughal court.

This engraving is a late example of such romanticised imagery, produced as the tone of British imperial culture was shifting. As racial attitudes hardened and the East India Company consolidated its dominance in North India, the fascination with the Mughal world gave way to a more dismissive gaze, only hardened by the events of the Rebellion of 1857.