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Lot Essay
Inscriptions:
hand-written label to the reverse of the frame [Portrait of Lall Sing favourite minister of the Ranee Regent widow of Ranjit Singh.]
Originally a shopkeeper, Lal Singh (d.1866) entered Sikh government in 1832. Under the patronage of the powerful Dogras, Lal Singh rapidly grew his power, eventually becoming tutor of the young Duleep Singh who had come to the throne following the death of Ranjit Singh. In this role he would align with Maharani Jind Kaur, the youngest widow of Ranjit Singh and regent, going on to become her closest advisor and leader of the Khalsa army in the First Anglo-Sikh War. During the war the two would actually conspire with the British, seeing it as an opportunity to reduce the power of the ever more rebellious Khalsa. After the war, Lal Singh became Vizier for Lahore, although he would later fall from grace. After a trial by the British, he was found guilty and sentenced to exile in Agra taking up surgery and archaeology as hobbies until his death.
The Hungarian painter August Theodor Schoefft (1809-88) initially travelled to India via Turkey and Iran advertising in local newspapers and making a healthy living from painting portraits including that of Bahadur Shah Zafar II at Agra, the last Mughal Emperor. Yet it was in Lahore that Schoefft would receive his most lavish patronage. Staying just more than a year, Schoefft took numerous sketches and portraits of prominent courtiers. These include a well-known portrait of Sher Singh, sat bejewelled wearing the Koh-i noor diamond, of which versions exist now in the Bamba Collection, Lahore, and Toor Collection (Davinder Toor, In Pursuit of Empire, London, 2018, pp.138-141). The present painting captures Lal Singh in around 1841, at the beginning of his ascent to power, yet it is entirely feasible that, like many of Schoefft’s works, it was painted from his sketches once back in his Budapest studio. Intriguingly this would mean the execution of the work occurred just as the proud figure in the portrait was seeing his power evaporate.
A number of Schoefft’s works would eventually end up in the collection of Duleep Singh when exiled in England, passing then to his daughter Princess Bamba Jindan. Moving back to Lahore, the Princess bequeathed many of her works to her secretary, who in turn sold them to the Government of Pakistan. These are now housed in the Lahore Fort Museum as the Princess Bamba Collection and include the aforementioned portrait of Sher Sing and Schoefft’s famous work ‘The Court of Lahore’ c.1850-55). Another painting by Schoefft of a group of thugs preparing to strangle a lone Sikh warrior (c.1843-45) was sold in these Rooms, 07 October 2009, lot 144, and is now in the Toor Collection (op.cit., pp.148-151).
hand-written label to the reverse of the frame [Portrait of Lall Sing favourite minister of the Ranee Regent widow of Ranjit Singh.]
Originally a shopkeeper, Lal Singh (d.1866) entered Sikh government in 1832. Under the patronage of the powerful Dogras, Lal Singh rapidly grew his power, eventually becoming tutor of the young Duleep Singh who had come to the throne following the death of Ranjit Singh. In this role he would align with Maharani Jind Kaur, the youngest widow of Ranjit Singh and regent, going on to become her closest advisor and leader of the Khalsa army in the First Anglo-Sikh War. During the war the two would actually conspire with the British, seeing it as an opportunity to reduce the power of the ever more rebellious Khalsa. After the war, Lal Singh became Vizier for Lahore, although he would later fall from grace. After a trial by the British, he was found guilty and sentenced to exile in Agra taking up surgery and archaeology as hobbies until his death.
The Hungarian painter August Theodor Schoefft (1809-88) initially travelled to India via Turkey and Iran advertising in local newspapers and making a healthy living from painting portraits including that of Bahadur Shah Zafar II at Agra, the last Mughal Emperor. Yet it was in Lahore that Schoefft would receive his most lavish patronage. Staying just more than a year, Schoefft took numerous sketches and portraits of prominent courtiers. These include a well-known portrait of Sher Singh, sat bejewelled wearing the Koh-i noor diamond, of which versions exist now in the Bamba Collection, Lahore, and Toor Collection (Davinder Toor, In Pursuit of Empire, London, 2018, pp.138-141). The present painting captures Lal Singh in around 1841, at the beginning of his ascent to power, yet it is entirely feasible that, like many of Schoefft’s works, it was painted from his sketches once back in his Budapest studio. Intriguingly this would mean the execution of the work occurred just as the proud figure in the portrait was seeing his power evaporate.
A number of Schoefft’s works would eventually end up in the collection of Duleep Singh when exiled in England, passing then to his daughter Princess Bamba Jindan. Moving back to Lahore, the Princess bequeathed many of her works to her secretary, who in turn sold them to the Government of Pakistan. These are now housed in the Lahore Fort Museum as the Princess Bamba Collection and include the aforementioned portrait of Sher Sing and Schoefft’s famous work ‘The Court of Lahore’ c.1850-55). Another painting by Schoefft of a group of thugs preparing to strangle a lone Sikh warrior (c.1843-45) was sold in these Rooms, 07 October 2009, lot 144, and is now in the Toor Collection (op.cit., pp.148-151).