THE YOUNG MAHARAJA SAWAI OF AMBER, PRITHVI SINGH II (1762 - 1778), RIDING AN ELEPHANT
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION
Jaipur, Rajasthan, North-Western India, ca. 1770 - 1780, attributed to Ramji Das Chatera

Opaque pigments heightened with gold and silver on wove paper, the large vertical-format portrait depicting the young adolescent Maharaja of Amber, Prtihvi Singh II (r. 1768–1778), son of Madho Singh I, Raja of Jaipur, who ascended the throne when he was only five years old, riding an elephant bedecked in silver and gold trappings and tassels, seated behind him on the elephant's back his Prime Minister Khushhali Bohra holding a fly whisk, both noblemen wearing the typical Northern Indian white muslin jama outfit, vibrant and colourful turbans, and an earring with two pearls and a ruby, a distinctive sign of nobility common among both Rajput and Mughal high-society members, set within black and yellow rules, and pasted onto concentric decorative album borders in off-white and dark blue speckled with gold, the reverse with a black ink Devanagari caption, mounted, glazed, and framed, 45.5cm x 33cm including the frame.

Provenance: previously part of a private German collection.