Folio from a 'Six Seasons' Series: Sajjan Singh Holds Court under Moonlight (Primary Title)
Unknown (Artist)
This folio comes from a lavish manuscript depicting Maharana Sajjan Singh (ruled 1874-84) engaged in a variety of activities according to the changing seasons. The book was likely commissioned to commemorate the ruler of Mewar’s first full year in power; here he is pictured during the month of Saavan (May-June), sitting upon a low thrones on the carpeted terrace of a palace. The cool blue sky is illuminated by moonlight, stars, and lanterns as he conducts a royal audience. The participants’ portraits are meticulously individualized; composition and palette are both elegantly controlled. This picture speaks of the increasing incorporation of European fashions and tastes into India’s late 19th-century courts.
Front, upper left margin: single Devanagari character, numeral 8; Reverse, in three blocks: 16 lines of Devanagari, verse in three different meters in Brajbhasha with Mewari dialectical influences
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
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