‘Prince Futty Jung’, 1842 (colour litho)

‘Prince Futty Jung [sic]’, 1842. Coloured lithograph after Lieutenant Vincent Eyre, Bengal Artillery, 1842 (c). Prince Fateh Jang was the eldest son and successor to Emir Shah Shujah who was reinstalled by the British as ruler of Afghanistan in 1839. After the November 1841 uprising against the British and the overthrow of his father by Akbar Khan, the prince was proclaimed emir, but in reality his power was non-existent. Akbar, who confiscated much of the prince’s wealth, held the real power in Kabul. The prince did however manage to escape the fate of his murdered father, sneaking out of the Bala Hissar fort dressed in rags and eventually making his way to Sir George Pollock’s force at Gandamak in September 1842. He gladly vacated the throne and accompanied Pollock’s army back to India. From ‘Portraits of the Kabul Prisoners’, a set of pre-publication coloured lithographs later published by John Murray in 1843. The artist’s original drawings were made during his captivity in Afghanistan after the Retreat from Kabul during the 1st Afghan War (1838-1842).