Maharana Ari Singh II at worship in the City Palace

Maker(s)
Artist: Shambhu
Historical period(s)
Sisodia dynasty, Reign of Maharana Ari Singh, 1765
Movement
Mewar Court
School
Rajput School
Medium
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Dimensions
H x W: 68 × 53 cm (26 3/4 × 20 7/8 in) H x W x D (exhibition frame): 88.9 × 68.6 × 4.4 cm (35 × 27 × 1 3/4 in)
Geography
India, Mewar, Rajasthan state, Udaipur
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1986.7
On View Location
Sackler Gallery 28e: A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Painting

Keywords
drum, fiddle, India, lute, palace, puja, Sisodia dynasty (861 - 1947), worship
Provenance

By 1972
Switzerland, by 1972 [1]

To 1986
Spink & Son, Ltd., London, to 1986

From 1986
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Spink & Son, Ltd. in 1986

Notes:

[1] According to correspondence in the object file, Douglas Barrett, formerly Keeper of Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum, confirmed that he had seen and examined this object in Switzerland in 1972 (see Curatorial Note 3 in object record). See also, the letter written by Tom Lawton, dated December 17, 1985, in which he confirms that this object was in Switzerland by the 1970s (Curatorial Note 2 in object record).

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Spink & Son Ltd.

Label

Life at court was a subject particularly favored by the 18th century rulers of Udaipur.  This painting portrays Maharana Ari Singh, seated in the Amar Villas section of the City Palace at Udaipur, attended by his courtiers while he worships an enthroned Linga, an abstract form of the god Shiva.  In the courtyard below, with its water tank and formal garden, musicians and dancers perform in praise of the god.  The inscription on the reverse of the painting informs us that the painting was the work of the court painter Sive whom we know to have been active also during the reign of Ari Singh's father.

Published References
  • Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur. Exh. cat. Munich, 2022. cat. 19, pp. 131, 326.
  • Thomas Lawton, Thomas W. Lentz. Beyond the Legacy: Anniversary Acquisitions for the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. vol. 1 Washington, 1998. p. 200, fig. 1.
  • (Forward) Milo Cleveland Beach. The Magnificent Mughals. New York. p. 254, fig. 11.
Collection Area(s)
South Asian and Himalayan Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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