A PORTRAIT OF PRATAP SINGH II


JAIPUR, SCHOOL OF SAHIB RAM, CIRCA 1800Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; verso inscribed in Nagari, translated, "Picture 15 [in] red covers". Image: 10 3/4 x 7 1/2 in. (27.3 x 19 cm);Folio: 15 5/8 x 11 1/4 in. (39.6 x 28.6 cm)
|The accomplished painter has created a fine and noble depiction of Pratap Singh II of Mewar. The ruler wears a voluminous, bell-form jama which was the height of fashion at the Jaipur court in the late 18th century. The painter has taken great care to detail and shade the varying direction of its pleats. Pratap Singh II's princely adornments include a dagger tucked into his golden sash with an exquisite lion-headed hilt of jade. For closely related portrait and studies of Pratap Singh II, see Aiken, Masters of Indian Painting, Zurich, 2011, pp.623-40, figs.10-12, and another in the Victoria and Albert Museum (IS.88-1953). Published J.P. Losty, Indian Painting 1580-1850, Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd, New York, 2013, p.28. Provenance Private Virginia Collection since 1990s