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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2009.202.215
Title
Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Horse with a One-Eyed Groom
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1840
Places
Creation Place: South Asia, Pakistan, Punjab, Lahore
Culture
Indian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/217175

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Opaque watercolor, gold and metallic gray pigment
Dimensions
18 x 22.6 cm (7 1/16 x 8 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Stuart Cary Welch (by 1983 - 2008,) by descent; to his estate (2008-2009,) gift; to Harvard Art Museum.

Notes:
Object was part of long-term loan to Museum in 1983.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch
Accession Year
2009
Object Number
2009.202.215
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
The painting depicts the horse of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (r. 1801-1839), the first maharaja of the Sikhs of the Punjab. The caparisoned horse is white, gray, and dappled. A groomsman stands in front of the horse, holding onto the blue reins with both hands. He wears a long, white tunic and an orange turban and waist sash. He has a small mustache and appears to be missing his left eye. Ranjit Singh himself was also blind in his left eye since childhood as a result of smallpox. This work was executed on paper made in England and bearing a watermark of 1839, the year of Ranjit Singh’s death.

Publication History

  • Stuart Cary Welch, Room for Wonder : Indian Painting During the British Period, 1760-1880, exh. cat., American Federation of Arts (New York, NY, 1978), Page 122-123/Figure 54
  • Samina Quraeshi, Lahore: The City Within, Concept Media Pte Ltd (Singapore, 1988), page 107

Exhibition History

  • Poignant, Picturesque, and Berserk Northern Indian Paintings and Objects of the Seventeenth through Nineteenth Centuries, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/08/1992 - 10/04/1992
  • The Way I Remember Them: Paintings by Nusra Latif Qureshi, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, 02/20/2004 - 04/25/2004

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu