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Lot Essay
This captivating portrait is one of the greatest single figure studies from the Fraser Album. Incisive, penetrating and full of exquisite detail, it exemplifies the brilliance with which the Fraser artist was able to capture the very essence of his subjects.
The striking figure depicted is Ummee Chund, the man who saved William Fraser’s life during an assassination attempt in Panipat on 18 March 1819. The event, and his rescuer, clearly made a deep and lasting impression on William, and once recovered, he wrote a long letter to his brother James recounting the event. At the end of the letter, he wrote, “You remember Ummeechund, he was with us in the hills…a lad then of 19 or 20, tall & good looking. I now owe my life to him & shall take care to have his life made a comfortable one’ (quoted in Dalrymple 2019, p159).
This is one of two portraits of Ummee Chund in the Fraser Album, but the only single-figure study. The first, painted three years earlier in 1816 was formerly in the Collection of Baroness Helen Bachofen von Echt, and is published in Archer and Falk 1989, fig.61. In that portrait, Ummee Chund is depicted as one of three ‘recruits’ wearing white pantaloons and a turban and carrying a spear. Many of the “finest portrait studies in the Fraser Albums were done from life when young men first came into camp to be enlisted in what became the Second Regiment of Skinner’s Horse” (Losty and Roy 2012, p.221). By contrast, here Ummee Chund is now established amongst the ranks of Skinner’s Horse and cuts a fine figure in his magnificent pink and yellow uniform in a painting that Archer and Falk refer to as “one of the most impressive of the single portraits” in the album (1989, p.40).
The level of detail with which Ummee Chund's costume is rendered is exquisite. From the tiger-skin cross-belt and bright red frogging on the tunic, to the observation of the corporal's stripes on the right arm and the gold earrings, delicate fur hat and luxuriant curling hair, this painting is a real tour de force. As described by B.N. Goswamy, “this portrait is superb. The rich colouring and elegant cut of the uniform apart – embroidered tunic, long trousers, flowing gown, tall cap, tassels, curved sword in its scabbard – it is the look on the face that is so arresting. Ummee Chand, a Jat from Gohana, was apparently very young, on the threshold of youth, when he – to the astonishment of everyone – took on the armed assailant single-handedly and bought him down…… Here he stands with his smooth young face looking as if with disbelief at his own brave deed. There is something quite moving in the rendering” (Goswamy 2011, p.777).
Colonel James Skinner (1778-1841), the son of a Scottish soldier father and a Rajput mother, was a close friend of the Fraser brothers. Initially denied service with the East India Company, he began his career as a mercenary in the Maratha cavalry, before being ejected from their ranks because of his British blood. He was later recruited by the East India Company when Delhi fell to them in 1803, and raised the first regiment of Irregular Cavalry, later known as Skinner’s Horse, or the ‘Yellow Boys’, at his estate at Hansi in Haryana. Skinner’s Horse was made up of local cavalrymen recruited from the villages of Mewatti, Maratha and Rohilla near Delhi. They became famous for their horsemanship and skill with weapons and were soon regarded as the most magnificent cavalry force in North India. “The Yellow Boys [from Skinner’s Irregular Horse], highly trained, were to prove themselves the fittest and most energetic soldiers of the whole force, always arriving first at the destination” (Falk and Archer 1989, p.29). William Fraser was offered the rank of Major, and the position of second in command in Skinner’s Horse, which he accepted in October 1817. So close were William Fraser and James Skinner that after the second, and ultimately successful assassination attempt on William’s life, Colonel Skinner paid for a magnificent marble tomb to be erected for him in St. James Church in Delhi and is himself, buried next to him.
The striking figure depicted is Ummee Chund, the man who saved William Fraser’s life during an assassination attempt in Panipat on 18 March 1819. The event, and his rescuer, clearly made a deep and lasting impression on William, and once recovered, he wrote a long letter to his brother James recounting the event. At the end of the letter, he wrote, “You remember Ummeechund, he was with us in the hills…a lad then of 19 or 20, tall & good looking. I now owe my life to him & shall take care to have his life made a comfortable one’ (quoted in Dalrymple 2019, p159).
This is one of two portraits of Ummee Chund in the Fraser Album, but the only single-figure study. The first, painted three years earlier in 1816 was formerly in the Collection of Baroness Helen Bachofen von Echt, and is published in Archer and Falk 1989, fig.61. In that portrait, Ummee Chund is depicted as one of three ‘recruits’ wearing white pantaloons and a turban and carrying a spear. Many of the “finest portrait studies in the Fraser Albums were done from life when young men first came into camp to be enlisted in what became the Second Regiment of Skinner’s Horse” (Losty and Roy 2012, p.221). By contrast, here Ummee Chund is now established amongst the ranks of Skinner’s Horse and cuts a fine figure in his magnificent pink and yellow uniform in a painting that Archer and Falk refer to as “one of the most impressive of the single portraits” in the album (1989, p.40).
The level of detail with which Ummee Chund's costume is rendered is exquisite. From the tiger-skin cross-belt and bright red frogging on the tunic, to the observation of the corporal's stripes on the right arm and the gold earrings, delicate fur hat and luxuriant curling hair, this painting is a real tour de force. As described by B.N. Goswamy, “this portrait is superb. The rich colouring and elegant cut of the uniform apart – embroidered tunic, long trousers, flowing gown, tall cap, tassels, curved sword in its scabbard – it is the look on the face that is so arresting. Ummee Chand, a Jat from Gohana, was apparently very young, on the threshold of youth, when he – to the astonishment of everyone – took on the armed assailant single-handedly and bought him down…… Here he stands with his smooth young face looking as if with disbelief at his own brave deed. There is something quite moving in the rendering” (Goswamy 2011, p.777).
Colonel James Skinner (1778-1841), the son of a Scottish soldier father and a Rajput mother, was a close friend of the Fraser brothers. Initially denied service with the East India Company, he began his career as a mercenary in the Maratha cavalry, before being ejected from their ranks because of his British blood. He was later recruited by the East India Company when Delhi fell to them in 1803, and raised the first regiment of Irregular Cavalry, later known as Skinner’s Horse, or the ‘Yellow Boys’, at his estate at Hansi in Haryana. Skinner’s Horse was made up of local cavalrymen recruited from the villages of Mewatti, Maratha and Rohilla near Delhi. They became famous for their horsemanship and skill with weapons and were soon regarded as the most magnificent cavalry force in North India. “The Yellow Boys [from Skinner’s Irregular Horse], highly trained, were to prove themselves the fittest and most energetic soldiers of the whole force, always arriving first at the destination” (Falk and Archer 1989, p.29). William Fraser was offered the rank of Major, and the position of second in command in Skinner’s Horse, which he accepted in October 1817. So close were William Fraser and James Skinner that after the second, and ultimately successful assassination attempt on William’s life, Colonel Skinner paid for a magnificent marble tomb to be erected for him in St. James Church in Delhi and is himself, buried next to him.