BY JUGARSI, UDAIPUR, MEWAR, RAJASTHAN, NORTH WEST INDIA, CIRCA 1768-69 AD

This portrait of Maharana Ari Singh of Udaipur (r.1761-73) is particularly filled with movement. Riding his striding horse, the Maharana raises his left arm and holds a piece of gold cloth. His gold-woven sash and his flaring robes are depicted with great movement, a result of the galloping horse’s speed. Although it is unclear what activity Ari Singh is presently exercising, the hunt as a princely pursuit was a favourite of his. Many portraits depict him hunting on horseback, such as four paintings in the Ducrot Collection (Four Centuries of Rajput Painting, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2009, ME.48-51, pp.66-69). The son of Jagat Singh II of Mewar, he was known for his arrogance and irascibility and died struck ‘by a treacherous lance-stroke delivered by Ajit Singh of Bundi while hunting’ (Andrew Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur, Art under the patronage of the Maharanas of Mewar, Zurich, 2002, p.193).

This painted was executed by the court painter Jugarsi, son of Jiva. Both were active in Udaipur and Jugarsi painted the hunting expeditions of Maharana Jagat Singh II as early as 1750 (Andrew Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur, Zurich, 2001, fig.173, p.194). There are three hunting scenes of Ari Singh by Jugarsi, all dated 1762. Ari Singh commissioned a vast number of portraits to a point where he could no longer afford to pay the artists who ‘finally deserted the court or sought other livelihoods’ (Topsfield, op.cit., p.194 and notes 129, 130, 131 p.211).