.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This hand-coloured lithograph comes from The Honourable Emily Eden’s Portraits of the Princes of India, a privately-published volume which contained 24 hand coloured lithographs of figures she encountered on her travels through Northern India between 1837 and 1840. She travelled accompanied by her sister Fanny, as well as her brother Lord Auckland, the newly-appointed Governor-General of India. As well as including ‘types’ - depictions of ‘fakirs’, for instance, or Tibetan merchants she encountered in Shimla - the volume included portraits of many of the individuals she met in the course of her travels, especially in the Sikh Kingdom during the last years of Ranjit Singh. Her sketches were converted by J. Dickson and Son into lithographs for this limited print run.
As well as her Portraits, her letters to her sister written during her travels were published in 1867 as ‘Up the Country’: letters written to her sister from the upper provinces of India. In these letters, she describes how she developed a particularly close relationship with Sher Singh, who was dispatched by Ranjit Singh to guide them through Punjab (p.210). In the course of many shared dinners she got to know him well, describing him as ‘our dear friend’ (p.221). Eventually, while visiting the Shalimar gardens on 20 December 1838, she persuaded him to sit for a portrait, and described the experience in the following terms: "Shere Singh came to my tent to sit for his picture — such a gorgeous figure! All over diamonds and emeralds; and as it was a first private visit he brought a bag of rupees, which he waved round and threw on the ground, and of which it is indelicate to take least notice. It is still more indelicate taking them at all, I think, but it cannot be helped. He made a very good picture".
Other copies of Portraits of the Princes and People of India include one in the Royal Library, Windsor (acc.no.RCIN 1070252) and others that have appeared at auction, for instance one sold Bonhams London, 21 May 2024, lot 189 and others in these Rooms, 22 April 2010, lot 138; and 29 September 2011, lot 234.
As well as her Portraits, her letters to her sister written during her travels were published in 1867 as ‘Up the Country’: letters written to her sister from the upper provinces of India. In these letters, she describes how she developed a particularly close relationship with Sher Singh, who was dispatched by Ranjit Singh to guide them through Punjab (p.210). In the course of many shared dinners she got to know him well, describing him as ‘our dear friend’ (p.221). Eventually, while visiting the Shalimar gardens on 20 December 1838, she persuaded him to sit for a portrait, and described the experience in the following terms: "Shere Singh came to my tent to sit for his picture — such a gorgeous figure! All over diamonds and emeralds; and as it was a first private visit he brought a bag of rupees, which he waved round and threw on the ground, and of which it is indelicate to take least notice. It is still more indelicate taking them at all, I think, but it cannot be helped. He made a very good picture".
Other copies of Portraits of the Princes and People of India include one in the Royal Library, Windsor (acc.no.RCIN 1070252) and others that have appeared at auction, for instance one sold Bonhams London, 21 May 2024, lot 189 and others in these Rooms, 22 April 2010, lot 138; and 29 September 2011, lot 234.