Maharana Jawan Singh Receives Captain Cobbe and His Companions

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Maharana Jawan Singh Receives Captain Cobbe and His Companions

Artist Mewar School, attributed to Ghasi (Indian, active about 1820 -1838)

Date1830

Dimensions17 3/4 x 23 5/8 in. (45.1 x 60 cm)

Mediumopaque watercolor and gold on paper

ClassificationDrawings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2006.4

Not on View

Label TextA lavish royal reception (durbar) in the courtyard of Udaipur Palace plays out with entertaining ceremony in this painting attributed to Udaipur court artist Ghasi. The Maharana of Udaipur, Jawan Singh (ruled 1828–38), is enthroned at the center, his haloed figure larger than all the others. The festivities honor British Captain Cobbe and his two companions, who are shown three different times: arriving, kneeling while receiving gifts, and seated with Jawan Singh. Such repetition is typical of Udaipur court paintings and is used to show a progression of activity, much like a cartoon strip. Cobbe was the British representative for the region of Mewar in northwestern India from April 1823 until January 1831. Jawan Singh’s well-known love of extravagance is on full display in this painting: the courtyard is filled with hundreds of attendants and court officials, Jawan Singh's wives and concubines, horses in festive parade dress, elephants, camels, even a wrestling match. The artist has captured all of the activity, the colorful costumes, and the architecture of the palace in minute detail.Published ReferencesTopsfield, Andrew, The City Palace Museum: Udaipur Paintings of Mewar Court Life, Ahmedabad, Inde: Mapin, 1990, no.25.

Cimino, Rosa Maria, Life at Court in Rajasthan: Indian Miniatures from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, Firenze, Mario Luca Giustino, 1985, no. 28

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 35, repr. (col.).

MacGregor, Arthur, ed., The Cobbe Cabinet of Curiosities: An Anglo-Irish Country House Museum, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2015, p. 304, repr. (col.) p. 305, fig. 182.

Exhibition HistoryToledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Looks Good on Paper: Masterworks and Favorites, Oct. 10, 2014-Jan. 11, 2015.Comparative ReferencesAnother painting depicting Bhim Singh, Jawan Singh's father, with Captain Cobbe is in the Udaipur City Palace Collection, while a second painting is in a private collection in Italy. This painting also closely relates to a painting, possibly by the same artist, of Maharana Bhim Singh at the Sitala Mata Festival, published by Spinks, "The Sublime Image", 1997, no. 11.