Portrait of poet Shaykh Zaman `Ali (above) and portrait head of a man in a cap (below), from the Mirza Birjis Qadr Album

Portrait of poet Shaykh Zaman `Ali (above) and portrait head of a man in a cap (below), from the Mirza Birjis Qadr Album. Described as an album, this group of 29 drawings offers a series of portraits with closely-drawn faces and often more loosely sketched bodies. They have been linked with the brief and contested rule of Mirza Birjis Qadr as nawab of Lucknow (Mirza Muhammad Ramzan `Ali Bahadur, 1845-1893, r. 1857-8), because the portrait of his mother Hazrat Mahal notes that she is the "regent of Mirza Qadr". The original patron of the series is not known. Two drawings, graphite on paper, half-length portrait of a man with a moustache (above) and portrait head of a man in a cap (below), inscribed in Persian (on verso) "Shaykh Zaman `Ali, poet", folio from the Mirza Birjis Qadr Album, unsigned, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, undated, c. 1850-1858.