Lot 78
A PORTRAIT OF MAHARANA SARUP SINGH OF MEWAR (R. 1842-61) ATTRIBUTED TO THE ARTIST 'TARA'
INDIA, RAJASTHAN, MEWAR, MID-19TH CENTURY
Estimate: £1,500 - £2,000
Auction: 11 December 2024 from 10:00 GMT
Description
gouache on paper heightened in gold, purple border with margin rules in red, white and black, depicting the ruler facing to the right wearing a white jama and a red turban decorated with pearls, strands of emeralds and pearls about his neck, holding a tulwar in his left hand, a jade-hilted dagger tucked into his gold and red striped patka, against a green landscape, nagari inscription on verso, mounted, glazed and framed
Dimensions
24.4cm x 16.9cm
Footnote
Tara, also known as Tara Chand, was an artist working at the Mewar court over a period of twenty-five years from circa 1836 to 1861 and during the reign of Maharana Sarup Singh. He was a hugely competent artist valued at the Mewar court for his hunting and equestrian scenes, several of which are in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. There is also a charming portrait of this court artist with possibly his two young sons by the British artist William Carpenter, circa 1851 bearing the inscription 'Tara Chund, court painter, Udaipur' in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
For further discussion, see:
L. York Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Schools from the Chester Beatty Library, London, 1995, pp. 1014-1018.
A. Topsfield, Paintings from Rajasthan in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1980, pp.14-16, fig.1.
D. Diamond and D. Khera, A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur, Washington D.C., 2023.
