1833

Lieutenant Mehar Mahomed Khan 1916

Head and shoulders slightly to the left, full face, wearing service dress with decorations and a turban

Oil on board, 73 x 43 cm (27 ½ x 16 in.)

Inscribed lower right: László 1916. July / LONDON.

Laib C32 (18)        

NPG Album 195-16, f. 91

Sitter’s Book II, f. 7: [in the artist’s hand: General Mehar Mahomed Khan- / of Malor Kotla state. / 1916. July 22.] / [below, in Lucy de László’s hand: commanding officier [sic] state forces / Hon. St. Cousin of H.H. The Nawab of / Maler Kotla: Punjab.]

Private Collection

During the First World War de László contributed a number of pictures to auctions in aid of raising funds for the war effort. In 1916 they included a study portrait of Julia James [5821] for the benefit of St Dunstan’s Charity for Blind Soldiers and Gladys Cooper [1769] for the Star and Garter Charity Book in aid of the Red Cross.

When Austen Chamberlain [3795], Secretary of State for India, asked if de László might contribute a painting to a Red Cross auction organised by Lady Willingdon [7755], Vicereine of India, he readily agreed. Chamberlain had admired the artist portrait of two Sikh Cavalry officers [7173] and asked if he might make a reduced version for the auction. Preferring to work from life, de László instead painted the present study portrait in one-sitting for the nominal fee of 50 guineas. This was raffled in Bombay and fetched 25,000 rupees (£650), the equivalent of some £38,000 in 2025. The artist’s biography Portrait of a Painter states that the winner of the auction gave the picture to Lady Willingdon as a gift.^[1] A letter dated 1956 between the artist’s sons Patrick and Paul suggests this was Chamberlain himself, though Lady Willingdon’s son was under the impression that it was inherited from him.^[2]

De László had photographic copies made of the portrait and presented one to the sitter via Sir John Dunlop at the India Office, who replied: “I have delayed answering your kind letter of the 11th until I could report the arrival of the copies of the print. These have come this morning & I send you my cordial thanks for the copy you have so generously given to me. It is a striking work and you have caught the Pathan spirit of his ancestors in his expression. I have sent his two copies to the Sirdar who is now in Egypt.”^[3]

Lieutenant Khan was awarded the Order of British India, second class, on 20 May 1898, for his role as Commandant of the Maler Kotla Sappers as part of the British Tirah Expeditionary Force.^[4] The Order confers the title of Bahadur on the recipient. During the First World War he was part of the Imperial Service Troops (still not officially part of the British Indian Army, but independent state troops seconded to the British).

He was made an honorary lieutenant in the British Indian Army on 3 July 1915. This was relatively rare and usually given as a reward for high service. He may have been a general officer in the Maler Kotla state forces at the same time, hence the difference between the title and the artist’s sitters’ book. The medal ribbons he wears in the portrait are (from left to right) the Order of British India, believed to be the Delhi Durbar 1903, King George V coronation medal 1911, and India Medal 1895-1902. The two ‘pips’ on his shoulder show that he is a lieutenant, and the red collar tabs show that he is serving as an officer on the general staff. In 1919, the sitter was made a companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) and awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE), both dated from 3 June 1919, for meritorious services in Egypt and India during the war.

We are grateful to Pip Dodd, Curator at the National Army Museum, for his assistance in compiling this entry.

PROVENANCE:                 

Sir Austen Chamberlain, Secretary of State for India;

Lady Willingdon, Vicereine of India;

Christie’s South Kensington, 21 June 1990, lot 99;

Private Collection

LITERATURE:                 

•Rutter, Owen. Portrait of a Painter, 1939, p. 306

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, p. 92

•DLA073-0158, letter from John Dunlop Smith to de László, 9 August 1916  

•DLA123-0809, letter from Patrick de Laszlo to Paul de Laszlo, 30 July 1956

KF 2025