Portraits in Princely India: 1700-1900

by Llewellyn-Jones, Rosie

• ISBN13: 9788185026862
• ISBN10: 8185026866
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-16
• Publisher: Marg Pubns

Summary

Since Independence, the princes and regional rulers of India have mostly been seen as anachronistic figures, too closely associated with the former colonial government, and often a byword for extravagance, sybaritic lifestyles, and mild despotism. When in 1967 they were stripped of their privy purses by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, there were more protests in Britain than in India. No serious efforts have been made to put these men, and a few women, in a pictorial context, to examine the differing styles of portraiture favoured by them, and the motives behind the pictures, until now. The more one gazes at these important but hitherto neglected works of art, the more questions are raised. This book attempts to answer and interpret some of them. The arrival of European painters in late 18th century India presented a new opportunity for Indian rulers to commission self-portraits of a different kind, and also to influence indigenous artists in new styles and paint mediums. The arrival of photography brought a further opportunity for them to be pictured in different ways.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 8
Artists from Afar: Company Painters in the Princely Courts of India 1770-1900	p. 16
Portraits of the Nawabs: Images from the Lucknow Court 1775-1856	p. 30
Portraiture at the Tanjore Maratha Court: Toward Modernity in the Early 19th Century	p. 44
Hyderabad: 150 Years of Court Paintings	p. 58
Dressed for Success: Indian Princes and Western Symbols of Power	p. 68
Dazzling Baubles: Gems and Jewels in Princely Portraits	p. 82
Depicting Kingship: Portraits of the Maharajas of Jaipur	p. 98
Presenting an Image: Princely Photography in India	p. 110
Imperial Politicians and Bejewelled Barons: Changing Representations of Indian Princes after 1858	p. 124
Index	p. 134
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