A PORTAIT OF MAHARAJA RAM SINGH OF BIKANER

Estimate

1,500 - 2,500 USD

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Description

A PORTAIT OF MAHARAJA RAM SINGH OF BIKANER
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper
image: 8 1/2 by 4 3/8 in. (21.6 by 11.1 cm);
folio: 10 3/4 by 6 1/8 in. (27.3 by 15.5 cm) unframed

Catalogue Note

One hand on his katar (fist dagger) the other on the single hilt of his double-bladed sheathed sword. He stands ceremonially in an orange jama and matching Mughal-style pagri (cap) against an earthen-brown ground. This stylized and quintessentially Rajput posthumous portrait may be compared with earlier Mughal-influenced portraits of Maharaja Karan Singh of Bikaner (r.1631-1667) who is often depicted similarly in brilliant orange jama and pagri.

For earlier portraits of Maharaja Karan Singh see Sotheby’s New York, March, 1987, lot 79 and S.C. Welch Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches, New York, 1976, cat. 62.