Portrait of Colonel Ranabir Singh Thapa

This handsome portrait of the nobleman Colonel Ranabir Singh Thapa is a rare example of Nepalese court secular painting produced in the early to mid-nineteenth century. A leading member of the powerful Thapa family in Nepal, Ranabir Singh Thapa served variously as an army commander, politician, and minister of state. The sitter, splendidly dressed in full military attire, is seen at the height of his powers in the 1830s. His curved cavalry sword hangs from his cummerbund, from which the hilt of a traditional Nepalese dagger (khukuri) projects. He is seen seated in an interior contrived after European models, with a heavy swag of curtains drawn theatrically to one side to reveal the sitter, flanked by a Georgian-style marquetry-inlaid bureau in the foreground and a writing desk that faces a river or lake vista. Two diminutive figures seated to his right may be presumed to be his sons. The work is unsigned but was possibly by the professional Nepalese painter Bhajuman Chitrakar, active through the 1820s to at least 1850.