Maharao Umed Singh hunting tigers
date: label: Date
content: 1787
name: label: Artist
content: Hans Raj Joshi (1750-1799)
notes: label: School/Tradition
content: Kota school
label: Inscriptions
content: Recto: in devanagari script: maharaja dhiraja maharaja maharao raja sri umed singhji bahadur his
label: Inscriptions
content: Courageous king of kings, great king Umed Singh
label: Inscriptions
content: Verso: in devanagari script: samvat 1844 vasakih sudi 14, hitvarah din ki jp dim (?) kul thak ajai nahan ghoghari mari…Joshi Hans Raj chuterako, ji ho
label: Inscriptions
content: Samvat 1844 (1787 CE), fourteenth day of Caisakh, Sunday…killed the…animals.
label: Inscriptions
content: Painting by Hans Raj Joshi
label: Inscriptions
content: Painting by Hans Raj Joshi
label: Label
content: Royal hunts were symbolically important expressions of kingship within the Ancient Near East, Persia and India. Beginning around 1660, artists in Kota began creating extraordinary images of rulers hunting game, which through to the mid-eighteenth century deployed calligraphic contour lines to render animals with great vivacity in highly textured landscapes. This later hunt scene deploys solid blocks of color - lavender, salmon, orange and teal - that play off the textured sage greens of the forest. The composition demands that the viewer search through the foliage for a tiger represented multiple times in a way that perhaps evokes the act of looking for game in the jungle. On the right, a tiger mauls one of the servants of the hunt. At top center, a nobleman, probably the powerful Zalim Singh, shoots from a a hunting platform at the tiger. The tiger subsequently appears on the left, charging towards Umed Singh, with white halo and dressed in camouflage green, who shoots from a hunting platform. Visible above and below the tiger is the lattice-work enclosure that was built to drive game towards the ruler.
label: Label
content: The knobby lavender rocks, which appear in other Kota hunt scenes, suggest that the location is the hunting grounds of Kaithun.
label: Provenance
content: To 1971
label: Provenance
content: Indian Arts Palace, New Delhi [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1971 to 2001
label: Provenance
content: Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), purchased from Indian Arts Palace, New Delhi in December 1971 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 2001 to 2018
label: Provenance
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Beverly Hills, California, by inheritance from Ralph Benkaim in 2001
label: Provenance
content: From 2018
label: Provenance
content: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, partial gift and purchase from Catherine Glynn Benkaim
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] According to information from Catherine Glynn Benkaim.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Collection
content: National Museum of Asian Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Life at court: Art for India's Rulers, 16th-19th centuries (November 20, 1985 to May 11, 1986)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Indian Arts Palace
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Ralph and Catherine Benkaim
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim (born 1946)
place: label: Origin
content: Kota, Rajasthan state, India
topic: label: Topic
content: portrait
label: Topic
content: tiger
label: Topic
content: hunting
label: Topic
content: India
label: Topic
content: raja
label: Topic
content: South Asian and Himalayan Art
label: Topic
content: Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
setName: label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection — funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: S2018.1.39
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (overall): 43.2 × 70.2 cm (17 × 27 5/8 in)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (framed): 61.6 × 86 cm (24 1/4 × 33 7/8 in)