Artist:Ustad Ahmad (son of Ahmad Ali)
Medium: Opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper
Geograhical Locations:
Dates:ca. 1740–1750
Dimensions: sheet: 12 1/4 x 8 5/16 in. (31.1 x 21.1 cm) image: 9 1/16 x 5 7/8 in. (23.0 x 15.0 cm)
Collections:
Accession Number: 86.187.1
Image: 86.187.1_IMLS_SL2.jpg,
Catalogue Description: From Realms of Heroism: This portrait depicts Thakur Sangram Singh of Uniara (possibly) riding a chestnut horse. He wears a transparent white jama, an elaborate gold turban, and a long gold brocade patka. Six attendants, dressed in blue jamas and orange turbans and carrying guns and tapers, walk alongside, a pair in front, and four in the rear. The high horizon is completed by a band of blue scalloped clouds; birds are indicated in horizontal brush strokes in white, marking the sky. A green hilly landscape with tufts of grass and rabbits complete the scene. One should perhaps note that the faces of the attendants are strikingly similar to that of the ruler. Although politically allied to Jaipur throughout the eighteenth century, Uniara was a small Rajput state located close to Bundi and Kota. In the Uniara genealogy there are two rulers named Sangram, one who reigned 1690-1715 and another born 1854 (Beach 1974; p. 54). This portrait fits into a standard eighteenth-century type depicting local Rajput rulers commonly painted at Bikaner. AGP.