This photograph and painting comes from Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi, an album consisting of 89 folios containing approximately 130 paintings of views of Mughal and pre-Mughal monuments of Delhi, as well as other contemporary material, with an accompanying manuscript text written by Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe (1795-1853), the governor-general’s agent at the imperial court.
They depict Zeenat Mahal Begum, the wife of the King of Delhi at the time of the Mutiny of 1857. The photograph was presumably acquired by Metcalfe’s son, Sir John Theophilus Metcalfe (1828-83), who was the magistrate in Delhi in 1857, and pasted in at that time. “We the Bayley family possess her photograph taken after her capture (after the Uprising of 1857).”
Zeenat Mahal was the wife of Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862), the last of the Mughal Emperors. Prior to the Uprising of 1857, the British East India Company reduced Bahadur Shah Zafar and his family, to a state of dependence, with the British Resident holding actual power. Zeenat Mahal was angered by Metcalfe, for meddling in palace affairs and when Metcalfe died mysteriously, many believed that she had poisoned him. After the Uprising of 1857, Bahadur Shah and Zeenat Mahal were exiled to Rangoon in Burma.
They depict Zeenat Mahal Begum, the wife of the King of Delhi at the time of the Mutiny of 1857. The photograph was presumably acquired by Metcalfe’s son, Sir John Theophilus Metcalfe (1828-83), who was the magistrate in Delhi in 1857, and pasted in at that time. “We the Bayley family possess her photograph taken after her capture (after the Uprising of 1857).”
Zeenat Mahal was the wife of Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862), the last of the Mughal Emperors. Prior to the Uprising of 1857, the British East India Company reduced Bahadur Shah Zafar and his family, to a state of dependence, with the British Resident holding actual power. Zeenat Mahal was angered by Metcalfe, for meddling in palace affairs and when Metcalfe died mysteriously, many believed that she had poisoned him. After the Uprising of 1857, Bahadur Shah and Zeenat Mahal were exiled to Rangoon in Burma.