Raja Udai Singh of Chamba with a Courier and Attendants
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.The portly raja wears the distinctive robes of the hills, a tailored white woolen coat known locally as a chola. Before him stands a courtier offering the paan box (for betel leaves), and behind him are two attendants, one holding his sword and waving a peacock-feather fan and the other proffering the hookah base from which the raja smokes, all signifiers of royal rank. The sharply defined profile, with a large almond-shaped eye disconcertingly gazing upward, is an idiosyncrasy of the Chamba style, but the highly individualized characterization—along with comparison to a portrait of Udai Singh of Chamba (r. 1690–1720) now in the National Museum, New Delhi—suggests that this portrait shows the same ruler in his advanced years.
Artwork Details
- Title: Raja Udai Singh of Chamba with a Courier and Attendants
- Date: ca. 1710
- Culture: India, Himachal Pradesh, Chamba
- Medium: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 7 5/8 × 9 in. (19.4 × 22.9 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: The Howard Hodgkin Collection, on loan from the Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust
- Object Number: L.2022.30.25
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art