GWALIOR, INDIA, FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

Details

MAHARAJA DAULAT RAO SCINDIA OF GWALIOR SEATED WITH HIS GENERAL
GWALIOR, INDIA, FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY
Gouache with gold on paper, the nimbate ruler holding a dagger (katar) in his right hand, seated on cushions with a nobleman on a terrace, within narrow blue border comprising scrolling vine, with white and blue rules and red margins
Painting: 7 7/8 x 10 3/8 in. (20.1 x 26.2 cm.)
Folio: 9 5/8 x 12 2/8 in. (24.5 x 31.2 cm.)

Provenance

Lucy Truman Aldrich, Providence, Rhode Island.
Acquired from the estate of the above, September 1955.

Exhibited

R. Ellsworth et al., The David and Peggy Rockefeller Collection: Arts of Asia and Neighboring Cultures, New York, 1993, vol III, p. 300, no. 229.

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Lot Essay

In the 1993 catalogue Toby Falk identified the nimbate maharaja as Jhanku (or Jhankoji) Rao Scindia who reigned from 1827-1843. He also however very closely resembles Jhanku Rao’s predecessor, Daulat Rao Scindia, as in a portrait formerly with Ed Binney, now in the San Diego Museum of Art or, even closer, in a company school depiction of him in identical pose by Khairullah of Delhi now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (03526 (IS); Mildred Archer, Company Paintings Indian Paintings of the British period, London, 1992, p.162). It is interesting to compare the Company school interpretation of the subject with the present painting which clearly shows the strong influence of Jaipur traditions.

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