Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts and Books | April 2017

64 | Osian’s–Connoisseurs of Art Property formerly from the Royal Udaipur Family Collection 30 Ambav after Tara after William Carpenter Maharana Sarup Singh with Attendants Watercolour on paper, c.1852 19.9 x 27.0 in (50.5 x 68.5 cm) Inscriptions Above: Sri Maharajadjhiraja Maharanaji Sri 108 Sri Sarup Singh Ji Ba[ha]dur; Below: Samat 1908 ra phagan sud 1 ke din nijar huvo kalami cataro Ambav Paremon Das ori jama (‘Presented on the 1st day of the month Phalgun VS 1908 (AD1852) / by the artist Ambav / entered into the store by Pareman? Das’) Literature Topsfield, Andrew, 1980 & 2002 Provenance Important International Art Collection; acquired in 2008 from Francesca Galloway, London; formerly in a French Collection during the 1980s who in turn acquired it from Spink & Sons during the early 1970s; previously part of the Royal Udaipur Family Collection INR 5,000,000 – 7,500,000 USD 74,630 – 111,940 Full double-spread image on pp. 66-67 Maharana Sarup Singh (reg. 1842-61) sits at ease his back leaning against a bolster and his feet tucked under him, a naturalistic pose at odds with the traditional overhead view of the carpet, that also oddly functions as a screen behind which stand the two attendants who wave morchhals over their master. These inconsistencies are resolved when it is realised that the artist is copying and recreating from a European source, in this case the itinerant English artist William Carpenter’s portrait of the Maharana taken in 1851 and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In between Ambav’s and Carpenter’s portraits stands another, that done by Tara in 1851 directly from Carpenter’s work (Topsfield 1980, pp. 14-15). Tara was the principal court artist in Udaipur from 1836 to about 1866. Ambav like Tara gives the Maharana’s face a mask-like inscrutability at odds with the naturalistic handling of his gown and treats similarly the carpet and the attendants. Carpenter (1818-99) travelled widely in northern India between 1850 and 1856. He visited Udaipur in 1851 and drew portraits not only of the Maharana but also of Tara himself, also in the V & A. Topsfield notes increasing European influence in Tara’s work from about 1850 occasioned not only by Carpenter’s visit but also by that of another artist F.C. Lewis who visited Udaipur in 1855 in company with Sir Henry Lawrence the Political Agent in Rajputana (Topsfield 2002, pp. 262-65).