Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Portraiture, court life, and mythological scenes

Paintings from the Rajput courts of Rajasthan in western India, dating from the mid-17th to mid-19th century, have always formed the largest section of the Hodgkin collection. As at the Punjab Hill courts, by 1700 the indigenous Rajasthani traditions of poetical and mythological manuscript illustration (see, for example, Wrestlers exercising (LI118.120)) were giving way to the Mughal-inspired genres of portraiture and court reportage. Here also, the received imperial conventions were reinterpreted with freedom and panache, and sometimes on an unusually large scale.

Over the years Hodgkin has favoured works from a select group of Rajasthani courts. As well as the court or hunting scenes from major centres such as Udaipur, capital of the Maharanas of Mewar, there are many compelling works from lesser courts such as Sawar or Raghugarh. Often the most original and inventive paintings were made at these smaller courts, where protocol was more relaxed and artists could experiment more freely. At Kishangarh, a seductive stylization of the ideal female facial type developed, seen in the large temple hanging of dancing milkmaids and A Lady Singing (LI118.30, LI118.31).

Royal portraits

Maharaja Dhiraj Singh riding (LI118.34)   Maharaja Dhiraj Singh watches a nautch (LI118.40)   Maharaja Raj Singh of Sawar in a garden arcade (LI118.41)

Muslim nobleman (LI118.39)   Maharaja Bakhat Singh of Nagaur (LI118.36)   Maharaja Raj Singh of Junia (LI118.33)   Maharaja Pratap Singh (LI118.43)

A lady singing (LI118.31)   The gopis dance in the forest, or Sarat Purnima (LI118.30)   A court beauty (LI118.32)

Scenes of court life

Wrestlers exercising, illustrating the musical mode Deshakh Ragini (LI118.120)   Maharaja Raj Singh of Sawar and his elephants (LI118.73)   Maharaja Raj Singh of Sawar receives a yogi in a garden (LI118.25)   Sheet of sketches and figure studies (LI118.16)

Vibhishana in the camp of Rama (LI118.11)   Maharana Amar Singh with his ladies (LI118.23)   Maharana Amar Singh hunting sarus crane (LI118.76)   Sangram Singh Ranawat hawking (LI118.78)

Rathor noblemen in durbar (LI118.18)   Maharana Jagat Singh and his queens at Jagniwas (LI118.24)   Maharana Jagat Singh in a lake palace garden (LI118.20)   Maharaja Vijai Singh bathes with his ladies (LI118.19)

Rawat Gokul Das at the Singh Sagar (LI118.80)   Maharao Ram Singh of Kota in durbar (LI118.17)   Maharao Ram Singh II's marriage celebrations at Udaipur (LI118.29)   Krishna returns to Nanda's house at dusk, or Sandhya Arati (LI118.95)

Elephants and hunts

Among the many local court styles of Rajasthan, Howard Hodgkin has valued above all the extraordinarily animated elephant drawings and paintings of Kota, close to Bundi in south-east Rajasthan. The Kota painters’ studies of the court elephants in action are unrivalled in their energy of line and their sense of surging mass in motion. Classic mid-17th century compositions such as Elephants fighting (LI118.62) derived partly from Mughal models, and were often reworked in large-scale palace mural compositions. Yet in the hands of a master painter they could still be recreated afresh each time. Even a century later, the Kota artists’ turbulent compositions still seethe with life, as seen in the three great hunting scenes dating from c.1720-1740 (LI118.79, LI118.77, LI118.74).

Royal lion hunt (LI118.75)   Maharao Bhao Singh riding an elephant (LI118.57)

Elephants fighting (LI118.62)   Enraged elephant (LI118.45)   Head of an elephant (LI118.51)

Fallen elephant (LI118.52)   Elephant at a gallop (LI118.53)   Elephant with howdah (LI118.50)

Maharao Madho Singh hunting wild boar (LI118.79)   Elephant hunt (LI118.77)   Shri Brijnathji and Maharao Durjan Sal hunting (LI118.74)

Elephants pushing cannons drawn by bullocks (LI118.60)   Elephants pushing cannons drawn by bullocks (LI118.61)