Nadir Khan is depicted in the uniform of his regiment, the 9th Bengal Lancers, and his badges include: the Jubilee medal; Egypt 1882-9; Indian General Service 1854-94; and the Kabul to Kandahar Star. He had been promoted Risaldar (Captain) in 1894. He was one of the soldiers who came to England for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in June 1897.This portrait was therefore probably made in London.

Rudolf Swoboda was born in Vienna in 1859 and studied under his uncle Leopold Carl Müller between 1878 and 1884. It was from Müller that Swoboda developed an interest in Orientalist art, cemented by a visit to see his uncle in Egypt in 1879. This marked the first of six visits made by the artist to Egypt between 1880 and 1891.

Between 1885 and 1892 Swoboda worked almost exclusively for Queen Victoria.