Ágoston Schoefft

August Theodor Schoefft (1809 – 1888) was a 19th-century Hungarian painter. He spent more than one year in the Sikh Empire, arriving in 1841, where he painted portraits and scenes of the surrounding area. His best known works include The Court of Lahore and Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Darbar Sahib. A painting by Scheofft sold at Christie's for over £91,250 in 2009. While in India, Schoefft painted portraits of British and French officials, diplomats, and Indian princes. He also travelled to Mexico, the United States, and several countries in the Middle East, where he made further paintings, with his works being exhibited at Vienna, Paris, and London.

Family background Schoefft was born into a family of sculptors from Pest whose familial atelier was active from 1775 to 1850. Schoefft worked at his familial atelier until 1828, where-after he began his studies in Vienna. After completing his European studies, Schoefft had a short-stay in hometown of Pest, and then after that embarked on a world-tour to kick-start an international-career.

While in Delhi, Schoefft painted portraits of Mughal royalty and officials, such as Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775–1862) and his two sons, Mirza Mughal (1828–1857) and Mirza Jawan Bakht (1841–1884). tells of finding Schoefft's paintings in the palace treasures:Five or six portraits in oils without frames, the work of Schoeft, the German painter who has returned to British India. There was also a portrait of the King covered with jewels and holding in his hand a scimitar straight and very broad at the point and a portrait of the chief minister, Raja Dhian Singh, a good looking man, on horseback and wearing that suit of armour which I have already described. The King who admires the armour wished to be painted in it also. Despire reaching acclaim and repute during his lifetime due to his travels and exhibitions, after Schoefft's death in 1888, he became forgotten in Hungary and was only rediscovered in the 1960s as an important painter in Hungarian art history. Meanwhile, the Sikhs have always held him as an important painter in their history. His legacy may have been forgotten more readily in Hungary as comparatively few of his original works survive in Hungarian collections.

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