Maharana Sangram Singh (1690-1734) watching a tamasha in the Amar Vilas (Bari Mahal) of the Udaipur palace
Mewar, Rajasthan, circa 1720
Opaque watercolour with gold on paper, the broad red border double ruled in black, one and a half lines of black Devanagari and an inventory number on the reverse
15 ¾ by 8 2/3 in.; 40 by 22 cm. painting
18 4/5 by 11 ¾ in.; 48 by 29.8 cm. folio
INSCRIPTIONS
No artist’s name is recorded but the central figure in the balcony is identified as Maharana Sangram Singh. The smudged inventory number may read 2/59.
PROVENANCE
Spink & Son, London, 1998
Private collection, Switzerland, 1998-2026
In one of the more vertiginous upper chambers of the white marble and sandstone royal palace at Udaipur, Maharana Sangram Singh (b.1690; r.1710-34) and a companion watch the proceedings in a courtyard below. The palace pavilion is composed of a series of colonnaded chhatris relieved with rows of jali screens and blind arches surrounding a verdant garden. The artist has created a brilliant effect by restricting colour, other than the two figures, to the green trees in the garden, the surrounding white architecture and the red ground of the open corridors of the palace. The maharana himself is illuminated by a gold halo and, accompanied by a nobleman, awaits proceedings from the loftiness of the Amar Vilas (or Bari Mahal), the garden within built by his father, Amar Singh, in 1703.
In the courtyard beside four erupting gilt fireworks a dance troupe provides an entertainment, each of the four male figures dancing and dressed in a gilt turban and a brocade coat, two playing a tambourine and a horn. Six courtiers are lined up on the left and four on the right. In the foreground stands a tethered elephant and its keeper, in front of which stand two attendants, holding sparkler and smoking torch, with which they prevent the animal drinking, so as to pay obeisance to the maharana.
MAHARANA SANGRAM SINGH
Sangram Singh (r.1710-34) was an astute ruler who diffracted invasion from both the Mughals and the Marathas and steered his kingdom into solvency. He regained territory that had been lost and his sons continued to expand the territory of his kingdom. In his near quarter of a century rule he set his artists an exacting task: “…to build up a comprehensive documentary record of state occasions and seasonal festivals, as well as the daily activities and pastimes of the Rana in his ancestral domain.” (Topsfield, 2002, pp.158-9). It would seem he had considerable success in doing so, judging from the number of surviving large-scale pictures, though many, like this painting, are not necessarily signed by an artist. These paintings are now scattered between the City Palace Museum, Udaipur, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and various international museums and private collections.
References
Topsfield, A., Court Painting at Udaipur, Zürich, 2002