Abdur Rahman Chughtai was a Pakistani painter, noted for his work inspired by a variety of sources that included traditional miniature, Mughal, Art Nouveau, Orientalist, and Islamic styles of painting. Chughtai's best-known paintings are his portraits, featuring their subjects existing in a flattened pictorial space painted in rich golds and pastels, and populated by metaphorical signifiers. A prolific artist, he created thousands of watercolors, drawings, and prints over the course of his life. Chughtai was lauded as one of the most important Muslim artists of the early 20th century, and went on to achieve widespread attention and honor for his work, including the Presidential Medal for Pride of Performance from the Pakistani government in 1968. Today, his work is represented in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and British Museum in London, among others. Born in Punjab, Pakistan in 1897, he died in the city of his birth in 1975
