A. R. Chughtai

The Last Mughal Artist — Abdur Rahman Chughtai (1897–1975)

Some legacies sleep like buried treasure — until they’re rediscovered. Abdur Rahman Chughtai, celebrated as The Painter of the East, was one such legacy reborn in the modern world. Born in Lahore in 1897, he carried within him the bloodline of Mughal architects and artisans, descending directly from Ustad Ahmad Mimar Lahori, the chief architect of the Taj Mahal. This lineage of artistic genius found its culmination in Chughtai’s brush — a brush that would go on to define the visual identity of a civilization.

✨ Bridging Civilizations Through Art

Abdur Rahman Chughtai’s art was not merely painting; it was poetry rendered in color, architecture captured in line, and soul expressed through form.His style drew from Persian miniatures, Mughal romanticism, and Islamic geometry — yet transcended all to create a distinct aesthetic now known worldwide as the Chughtai Style.He painted like a Persian, dreamed like a Sufi, and composed like a symphony of color — reviving the lost spirit of Islamic art in the age of modernism.

🌍 A Global Artist of the East

Chughtai’s genius was recognized across continents.

• Queen Elizabeth II became not just a collector but a custodian of his legacy; his magnum opus Amal-e-Chughtai rests in the royal library of Windsor Castle.

• Pablo Picasso once remarked, “He is the greatest Oriental painter I have ever seen.”

• Madam Tamara Talbot Rice described him as “one of the most important artists of our century.”

• Sir Basil Gray, of the British Museum, honored him for bridging Western and Islamic aesthetics.

Even European critics acknowledged his art as “a singular genius whose brush resurrected the glory of the Mughal soul.”

🕊 The Visionary & The Philosopher

Allama Iqbal, the Poet-Philosopher of the East, recognized Chughtai’s vision early on.In the 1928 foreword to Muraqqa-i-Chughtai, Iqbal wrote:

“He is not merely a painter — he is a thinker with a vision.”

Their collaboration — Iqbal’s poetry and Chughtai’s imagery — created an immortal dialogue between word and image, mind and soul. Together, they gave visual life to the philosophy of Khudi and the rebirth of Muslim identity in the modern age.

🏛 The Legacy Lives On

Chughtai’s works now reside in the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Royal Collection, and museums across the Islamic world. He stands as a bridge between eras — the Last Mughal Artist whose brush transformed Islamic philosophy into timeless visual poetry.

His art continues to inspire generations, reminding us that where European modernism ends, the Islamic renaissance begins.