INDIA, RAJASTHAN, UDAIPUR, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Large cloth paintings of this type are relatively rare in the greater corpus of classical Indian painting. The most prominent use of the medium is in the picchvai painting practice in Nathdwara which established satellite workshops in the neighboring Rajput princely states of Kishangarh and Udaipur. It is possible the commission of court paintings on cloth in 18th and 19th century Udaipur was influenced by the picchvai painting tradition; unlike piccvhai paintings, however, the present style of cloth painting carries a demonstrably miniaturist quality in style.
A few known examples of darbar scenes on cloth can be compared to the present painting. A large painting attributed to circa 1705 at the City Palace Museum, Udaipur (acc. no. 2012.20.0012.R) depicts Maharana Amar Singh II (r. 1698–1710) at his court watching elephants fight at the Manek Chowk. Two other early 18th century examples can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum (acc. nos. 09405(IS) and 09316(IS)), one of Maharana Sangram Singh (r. 1710-34) receiving the Dutch ambassador Johan Josua Ketelaar (1659 – 1718) and the other of an unidentified Maharana overseeing an elephant fight. A later painting at the Brooklyn Museum attributed to Ghasi, circa 1832 (acc. no. 2002.34) depicts Maharana Jawan Singh (r. 1828–38) in darbar with the Governor General of India, Lord William Cavendish Bentinck. Two large scale posthumous portrait paintings in the Victoria and Albert Museum (acc. no. IS.55-1997) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (acc. no. M.85.283.5) depicting Maharana Amar Singh and Maharana Jagat Singh can also be compared to the present lot, demonstrating miniature style portraiture in a large scale format.