ASCRIBED TO ANCHHYA RAM, POSSIBLY BIKANER, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, 18TH CENTURY

INSCRIPTIONS:
In the upper border an inscription names the subject Mahārāja Prathī Siṅgha-jī 'Maharaja Prithi Singh', and the painter as, Añchyā Rāma 'Anchhya Ram'

Though the name of the sitter depicted in this bewitching portrait is known, his identity remains obscure. On the reverse, there is a devanagari inscription which identifies him as Prithvi Singh, Maharja of Ratanpur, in the present-day state of Odisha. There is also a pencilled inscription in English which agrees that this depicts a Prithvi Singh who ruled between 1743 and 1773. The only Indian ruler of this name who ruled between those dates was the Maharaja of Ratlam. Further portrait of the latter Prithvi Singh include an example sold in these Rooms, 23 April 1981, lot 180, as well as one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc.no.1979.12.1). The close resemblance between the figure in those paintings and that of the present lot suggests that this painting is of the ruler of Ratlam, and not of Ratanpur.

The portrait in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, though it depicts the same subject, is very different in terms of its style. Rather than having been painted in Ratlam proper, it is more likely that this was painted by a neighboring school. Many of the features - such as the carpet painted flat-on to the viewer - would be at home in Bikaner. As a scion of the Rathore Dynasty, Prithvi Singh's relatives ruled in Bikaner, as they did in Kishangarh and Marwar. The illuminated margins, however, have much in common with those being produced in Lucknow, Ratlam's neighbours to the north.