An embassy of the Nawab of Oudh (Awadh), led by his minister Haider Beg Khan, passing Patna on its way to Lord Cornwallis, the new Governor-General of India, in Calcutta in 1786. Mezzotint by R. Earlom, 1800, after J. Zoffany, 1796.

Description of the composition in the 1796 Royal Academy exhibition : Hyderbeg on his mission to Lord Cornwallis, with a view of the granary erected by Warren Hastings Esq., at Patna

Description of the composition in an auction of the contents of Zoffany's studio in 1811 : The march of a native Indian army; completely illustrating the different casts of the inhabitants by their dresses, employments, &c. and with which Mr Zoffany was so completely acquainted by his long residence in India and by his attentive observation

Several different elements are brought together in the composition. In the centre, an elephant has run amok, has seized its former driver and is holding him in its trunk. In the left background is a large granary built at the suggestion of Warren Hastings after a famine in 1783-1784. In the foreground and the left middleground are many Indian people, which seem to be derived from the genre of paintings and drawings of Indian human types as defined by occupation, caste, religion etc. They include four fakirs. Numerous drawings by Zoffany in this genre were listed in his studio sale in 1811 (Forrester, loc. cit.). Zoffany portrays himself on horseback on the right. Haider Beg does not appear to be shown, but an elephant seen from behind on the left is labelled "Hyderbeck's swarie" in a separate key: "swarie" is not further defined, but the implication seems to be that Haider Beg is in that area of the picture

Patna, where the scene is represented as having taken place, is roughly equidistant between Lucknow, where the embassy presumably started, and Calcutta, its destination: the distance beteen Patna and either of the other cities is about 450-600 kilometres

London (No. 53, Fleet Street) : Published ... by Robert Laurie & James Whittle, 12th. July, 1800.

1 print : mezzotint ; image 65.2 x 79.2 cm

The embassy of Hyderbeck to Calcutta. From the Vizier of Oude, by way of Patna, in the year 1788, to meet Lord Cornwallis. For the names see the index plate. John Zoffany Esq. R.A. pinxit. Rich.d Earlom sculp. Londini

The exhibition of the Royal Academy MDCCXCVI: the twenty-eighth, London: Ioseph Cooper, [1796], p. 6

Englische Miscellen: Erster Band, Tübingen 1800, pp. 159-164

Martin Postle (ed.), Johan Zoffany R.A.: society observed, New Haven and London, 2011, no. 102, pp. 288-290 (entry by Gillian Forrester)

Wellcome Collection 574899i

After a painting exhibited in the 28th exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1796, no. 125, and presented to the Victoria Memorial, Kolkata, in 1923