August Schoefft entered history as a prominent Hungarian painter of the 19th century. Few people would think that an artist can be famous not only for his paintings. He literally had traveled the world throughout his life. He traveled to Asia, traveled to India, Pakistan, Turkey, and at the end of his life traveled to North America and Mexico. Who else could have taken the only portrait of Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, except for Ágoston Schöfft, who was a friend to him and who was also a world traveler?
But it is not only the portrait of Sándor Kőrösi Csoma that we owe to August Schoefft. If you visit Pakistan and the city of Lahore, you will see the works of August Schoefft in the fort. The paintings of the Princess Bamba Collection, which he sold to the local Maharaja in 1863, are kept here. The paintings were displayed in the Great Hall in the central part of the fort, as the purpose of the Maharaja was to transform the building into a palace worthy of a ruler.
The collection was named after the Maharaja’s daughter, Princess Bamba, who collected a large art collection for herself, including Schöfft’s paintings after the Maharaja’s death. The pictures were considered to be very famous at the time, even a mysterious minister wanted to buy them, August Schoefft’s pictures, but the Maharaja’s family refused to sell the pictures that can still be seen in Lahore.
