40 MAHAR ANA BHIM SINGH RECEIVES SIR CHARLES METC ALFE IN DURBAR India (Udaipur), dated 1927-1928 Signed Pannalal Parasuram Gaur Height: 65.5 cm Width: 46.5 cm
Opaque watercolour heightened with gold on paper. Inscribed in gold devanagari to the top of the red border:
Thus it is Metcalfe seated opposite Bhim Singh under the canopy and next to him is Prince Jawan Singh.
Maharana Bhim Singh (reigned 1778-1828) receiving British officers in durbar in the courtyard of the Surya Mahal (later known as the Mor Chowk). This is published by Andrew Topsfield in Court Painting at Udaipur: Art under the patronage of the Maharanas of Mewar, 2002, p. 237, fig. 217, and attributed to Ghasi. According to Topsfield, it probably records the visit of Sir Charles Metcalfe, Resident at Delhi, in November 1826 during his tour of Rajasthan after the rainy season.
Metcalfe observed that, “His Highness was exceedingly kind in his manner, and did not seem deficient in quickness and intelligence”; while of Jawan Singh he wrote, “the heirapparent is a prince in appearance and a gentleman in manners. He bears a high character and manages his affairs well”.2 These impressions stand in pleasant contrast to the earlier reports of Captain Thomas Cobbe, Political Agent at Udaipur from 1823 to 1831, who remarked that “the Government is a tissue of cheating and oppression: from the prince to the peasant, all are robbers”.3
maharana ji shri bhim singh ji Further inscribed in white devanagari to the lower right corner: kalmi chitrakar pannalal parasuram gaur puracheen tasbir su nakal kari/ san 1984 ka “By the artist Pannalal Parasuram Gaur copying an older painting/ samvat 1984/1927-1928 AD”. This painting is a close copy of a Mewar painting from circa 1826 that depicts
The Ghasi original and its later versions have been described as depicting Bhim Singh receiving Captain (later Lieutenant-Colonel) James Tod, the first British Political Agent and future historian of the Rajputs in his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. Tod resided in Udaipur from 1818, the year Bhim Singh accepted British suzerainty, until 1822. Topsfield contends that Tod had only three companions at Udaipur - the officers Waugh, Carey and Dr Duncan - whereas in this composition eight British officers are depicted, a grand retinue fit for the Resident.1
Topsfield observes that the Ghasi painting of circa 1826 was made during Cobbe’s tenure in Mewar but Cobbe himself is not in the picture as he was on leave during this time, his place being taken by Captain Sutherland, who may be the second ranking officer in the painting.4 The three leading British dignitaries wear diplomatic dress and curved chapeaux bras, a bicorne or a modified tricorne that is often folded and carried under the arm as part of ceremonial, diplomatic, or naval dress. The five officers of lesser rank are shown with different hats and in a smaller size. Behind Bhim Singh is the solar symbol of Surya, from whom the Maharanas of Mewar claim descent. Above is the Chini ri Chitrasali or “Chinese Picture Hall”, decorated with blueand-white Chinese export and Delft tiles.
had almost ceased but a partial regeneration in the first decade of the nineteenth century came by way of the vigorous sub-style from Deogarh, led by Bakhta and his individualistic son Chokha, who worked both at Udaipur, and at Deogarh for Rawat Gokul Das. Chokha’s style, while providing intermittent revitalisation, was too idiosyncratic to generate by itself a fresh synthesis among the next generation of Udaipur artists. It is Ghasi that best represents the orthodox Udaipur style of the 1820s and his influence continued into the 1830s.5 The present picture is evidence of the high esteem enjoyed by Ghasi even in the early twentieth century. The signature along the bottom edge is that of Pannalal Parasuram Gaur (1860-1935), head of the royal painting workshop under Fateh Singh (reigned 1884-1930) and his son Bhupal Singh (reigned 19301955). Traditional Udaipur painting in its final phase from circa 1910 to 1945 is dominated by Pannalal and his son Changanlal. Much of their production comprised of large durbar and processional scenes, tiger hunts in panoramic landscapes and life-sized royal portraits, executed in a style very different from that of Ghasi and influenced by European realism and photography.6 This painting is the second of two known versions by Pannalal, who painted another Ghasi copy in 1923 that now hangs in the Mor Chowk itself. A third version is in the Shambhu Niwas palace collection.7
References: 1. Andrew Topsfield, The City Palace Museum Udaipur: Paintings of Mewar Court
According to Topsfield, painting in Mewar fell into a moribund state during the half century of political and economic turmoil between the last years of Ari Singh’s reign and the establishment of British hegemony. By the 1790s painting at Udaipur
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Life, 1990, p. 73. 2. Andrew Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur: Art under the patronage of the Maharanas of Mewar, 2002, pp. 237-238. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid., p. 243, footnote 141. 5. Ibid., pp. 215 and 234. 6. For paintings by Pannalal in his own style, see Topsfield, 2002, pp. 296-301. 7. Topsfield, 1990, p. 73, footnote 1.