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Portrait of Thakur Sangram Singh

Ustad Ahmad (son of Ahmad Ali)

Asian Art

MEDIUM Opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper
DATES ca. 1740-1750
DIMENSIONS sheet: 12 1/4 x 8 5/16 in. (31.1 x 21.1 cm) image: 9 1/16 x 5 7/8 in. (23.0 x 15.0 cm)  (show scale)
INSCRIPTIONS Verso, in Braj, in black ink in Devanagari script: Portrait of Thakur [baronet] Sangram Singh riding a chestnut horse by the master Ustad Ahmad, son of Ahmad Ali. Library stamp (blotted out) of the royal library of H. H. Maharaja of Bikaner
COLLECTIONS Asian Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 86.187.1
CREDIT LINE Gift of Patricia C. Jones
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION From Realms of Heroism: This portrait depicts Thakur Sangram Singh of Uniara (possibly) riding a chestnut horse. He wears a transparent white jama, an elaborate gold turban, and a long gold brocade patka. Six attendants, dressed in blue jamas and orange turbans and carrying guns and tapers, walk alongside, a pair in front, and four in the rear. The high horizon is completed by a band of blue scalloped clouds; birds are indicated in horizontal brush strokes in white, marking the sky. A green hilly landscape with tufts of grass and rabbits complete the scene. One should perhaps note that the faces of the attendants are strikingly similar to that of the ruler. Although politically allied to Jaipur throughout the eighteenth century, Uniara was a small Rajput state located close to Bundi and Kota. In the Uniara genealogy there are two rulers named Sangram, one who reigned 1690-1715 and another born 1854 (Beach 1974; p. 54). This portrait fits into a standard eighteenth-century type depicting local Rajput rulers commonly painted at Bikaner. AGP.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Ustad Ahmad (son of Ahmad Ali). Portrait of Thakur Sangram Singh, ca. 1740-1750. Opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper, sheet: 12 1/4 x 8 5/16 in. (31.1 x 21.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Patricia C. Jones, 86.187.1 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 86.187.1_IMLS_SL2.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 86.187.1_IMLS_SL2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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