File:Album Page with Three Poems (6125081096).jpg

English: Series Title: The Polier Album

Display Artist: Muhammad Ali Media & Support: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper Creation Date: 1781 Creation Place/Subject: India State-Province: Uttar Pradesh Court: Mughal School: Late Mughal Display Dimensions: 17 13/32 in. x 24 3/32 in. (44.2 cm x 61.2 cm) Credit Line: Edwin Binney 3rd Collection Accession Number: 1990.414 Collection: The San Diego Museum of Art Label Copy:

During the eighteenth century, the cultural center of the state of Awadh (Oudh) was Lucknow. This was where the capital was situated, except during the period 1765-75 when it was transferred to Faizabad. The Mughal empire was in steep decline, and when the governor of Awadh set himself up as an autonomous ruler, providing a relatively stable environment compared to the disarray in Delhi, much of the artistic community of Delhi migrated to Lucknow where the ruling aristocracy became their patrons. There was also a sizeable community of Europeans who became involved in the cultural life of the city, including a French-Swiss colonel Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier. The combination of the Delhi artists (musicians, architects, poets, as well as painters) trained in the classical Mughal traditions, the Awadhi aristocracy, itinerant European artists, and European patrons stimulated the evolution of a new culture. In painting, as in architecture, the focus was on the grand achievements of the Mughals of the preceding century, embellished with fashions and ideas from Europe.A French soldier, Louis Antoine Henri Polier, commissioned an album of calligraphies and paintings from a workshop in Delhi. The Europeanized style of the floral border shows either that the studio specialized in catering to foreigners or that Polier . Polier's album was later presented to Lady Eyre Coote, wife of the Commander of the British Army in India.Two of the verses are from the great mystical love poet Hafiz Nurallah, the author of the poetry in the center panel is unknown. The otherwise uncelebrated calligrapher, Muhammad 'Ali, signed and dated the central panel.This page is from an album of calligraphies and paintings commissioned by Colonel Polier, which was later presented to Lady Eyre Coote, wife of the Commander of the British Army in India. Two of the verses are from the great mystical love poet Hafiz Nurallah; the author of the poetry in the center panel is unknown. The otherwise uncelebrated calligrapher, Muhammad 'Ali, signed and dated the central panel.The verses have been translated He is the Glorifier! My spirit be thy sacrifice, O idol called Abtahi! Disruptive Turk, fervent Persian, seditious Arab, There is no one in the world who has not wondered at thy beauty. -- the sinner, Hafiz Nurallah, may Allah forgive him. He is the Glorifier! To thy threshold came The tip of our desire. If thou shouldst accept (it), Bravo to our good fortune! -- Muhammad 'Ali, 1195 He [is Allah!] If with musky wine my heart is taken, it is right, For from the hypocritical abstinence no sweet scent comes. Do not despair of the blessing of grace, for creation is generous. It forgives sins and grants absolution to lovers. -- the slave (of Allah) Hafiz Nurallah