Abdur Rahman Chughtai

Abdur Rahman Chughtai (born Sept. 21, 1894, Lahore, Pak.—died Jan. 17, 1975, Lahore) was a Pakistani artist. In the 1920s he created large watercolours in a modified Bengal-school style. By the 1940s his painting style was influenced by Mughal architecture, Islamic calligraphy, miniature painting, and Art Nouveau, and his diverse subject matter included heroes and heroines from Islamic history, Mughal kings and queens, and episodes from Punjabi, Persian, and Indo-Islamic legends and folktales. After the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, he came to be known as the national artist of Pakistan.