Portrait of an Indian Gentleman of rank, half-length, wearing a white costume and distinctive hat

George Place was a competant Irish painter and miniaturist. He arrived in Calcutta in 1798 only to find that Robert Home had a hold on the market, so immediately took off for Lucknow. The great majority of his portraits, like other European portraits in Lucknow, were lost during the Mutiny. Known patrons of Place were Saadat Ali, the Nawab of Oudh, and Lord Lake, (see M. Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825, London, 1979, pp. 323-327).