THREE PORTRAITS OF INDIAN RULERS
Northern India, early 19th and 20th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical compositions depicting three different Indian rulers, the equestrian portrait depicting Maharaja Sawai Bakhtawar Singh Prabhakar Bahadur of Alwar (r. 1791 - 1815), famous for his intolerance towards the Muslim community, the destructions of its mosques and the ban on Sufi practices, his steed decorated with sun and moon patterns, symbols of longevity, in the background a cowherd, a hunting scene and a Shiva Lingam shrine, at the top a golden cusped cartouche in nasta'liq script reading in the likeness of Raja Bakhtawar Sing Bahadur, the recto with an English note in pencil Mao Raja Bakhtawar Sing Bahadur, 29.3cm x 18.2cm; the seated portrait possibly a 20th-century replica of a known late 19th-century seated portrait of Jaswant Singh II, Maharaja of Jodhpur from 4 February 1873 – 11 October 1895, backed in Urdu newspaper, 38.2cm x 28.3cm; and the standing portrait depicting Maharaja Sawai of Amber, also known as Madho Singh I, ruler of Jaipur from 1750 - 1768, holding a distinctive Northern Indian encrusted tulwar with one hand and toying with his strands of pearls with the other, wearing a bejewelled turban and the traditional Rajput gold hoop earring with a pair of pearls and a ruby in the centre, a line of golden Devanagari script at the top of the composition bearing the name of the ruler, set within concentric dotted rules and multi-coloured gold-sprinkled borders, 31.7cm x 24.2cm.