fig. 2 Now unknown Indian artist, Asaf ud-Daula seated on a terrace with courtiers and musicians (c.1770s) painted paper, Height: 37.4 centimetres (page) Width: 53.4 centimetres Height: 24.2 centimetres (painting) Width: 37.9 centimetres, British Museum, London
fig. 3 Now unknown Indian artist, possibly after a lost oil painting by Johan Zoffany, Colonel Antoine Polier watching a nautch (c.1768-88) Museum Rietburg, Zurich
In an offshoot of the Mughal empire at Lucknow in the 1770s the Nawab of Awadh, Asaf-ud-Dawla, was represented (fig. 2) transacting the business of state reclining in a similar location under a canopy surrounded by courtiers and dancers.
A shift (fig. 3) in the type from the 1780s shows the European mercenary soldier Colonel Antoine Polier adopting the accoutrements of the Nawab from whom he derived most of his power and income. By situating himself before dancers in this position Polier laid claim to a share of prestige and authority in the volatile geopolitics of the Indian subcontinent.