Attributed to Ghasi. <em>Maharana Jawan Singh of Mewar Receiving the Governor General of India, Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, February 8th, 1832</em>, ca. 1832. Opaque watercolor, gold and silver on cloth, 74 7/16 × 50 3/8 in., 88 lb. (189 × 128 cm, 39.92kg). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Alvin E. Friedman-Kien Foundation, Inc., in honor of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner's 90th Birthday
, 2002.34 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2002.34_overall_PS11.jpg)

Attributed to Ghasi. Maharana Jawan Singh of Mewar Receiving the Governor General of India, Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, February 8th, 1832, ca. 1832. Opaque watercolor, gold and silver on cloth, 74 7/16 × 50 3/8 in., 88 lb. (189 × 128 cm, 39.92kg). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Alvin E. Friedman-Kien Foundation, Inc., in honor of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner's 90th Birthday , 2002.34 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2002.34_overall_PS11.jpg)

DOWNLOAD

Maharana Jawan Singh of Mewar Receiving the Governor General of India, Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, February 8th, 1832

Attributed to Ghasi

Asian Art

On View:

This large painting depicts an important meeting that took place at the 1832 Ajmer darbar, the first major gathering of India's Rajput rulers with the British governor general. A darbar is an official audience between rulers that includes a series of strictly regulated ceremonial meetings heralded by gun salutes and punctuated by an exchange of nazar (gifts). Maharana Jawan Singh of Mewar (ruled 1828–38), identified here by his gold nimbus and gold patka (sash), receives Lord Bentinck, who is formally attired in an orange coat. They share a throne made specially for the occasion. Jawan Singh's gifts to the British include multicolored bolts of cloth laid out on the white carpet before the stepped platform.

This painting has been attributed to Ghasi, a nineteenth-century court artist known for his clearly delineated darbar paintings that provide a visual reflection of the attention paid to protocol and hierarchy in nineteenth-century India. Like most painters of his time, Ghasi would have been trained primarily as a manuscript illustrator, so he was used to working on a small scale. As a result, even his large compositions have a miniaturist quality, with many small figures arranged within compartmentalized spaces.

ARTIST Attributed to Ghasi

MEDIUM Opaque watercolor, gold and silver on cloth

Place Made: Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

DATES ca. 1832

DIMENSIONS 74 7/16 × 50 3/8 in., 88 lb. (189 × 128 cm, 39.92kg) frame: 75 1/4 × 52 1/4 × 4 in. (191.1 × 132.7 × 10.2 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Asian Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2002.34

CREDIT LINE Gift of the Alvin E. Friedman-Kien Foundation, Inc., in honor of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner's 90th Birthday

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION A large painting on cotton depicting the February 8th meeting of the 1832 Ajmer darbar at which Maharana Jawan Singh of Mewar (r. 1828-38) received the Governor General of India, Lord William Cavendish Bentinck. The painting illustrates the large encampment in which the meeting took place, with the maharana and general seated in European-style chairs at the top, beneath a large tent, and various Mewari and British courtiers seated in tidy rows to either side of a large, central courtyard. On the ground are piles of colorful fabric, given as diplomatic gifts. Around the central meeting space are areas with various subsidiary figures and their horses, all surrounded by red temporary walls. Several areas of the painting are not finished, with the shapes of figures colored in but no details (such as facial features) added.

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Attributed to Ghasi. Maharana Jawan Singh of Mewar Receiving the Governor General of India, Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, February 8th, 1832, ca. 1832. Opaque watercolor, gold and silver on cloth, 74 7/16 × 50 3/8 in., 88 lb. (189 × 128 cm, 39.92kg). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Alvin E. Friedman-Kien Foundation, Inc., in honor of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner's 90th Birthday , 2002.34 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2002.34_overall_PS11.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 2002.34_overall_PS11.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2022

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT No known copyright restrictions

This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.