Maharao Ram Singh (reg. 1827-66) shooting a tiger from a pavilion, accompanied by the British political agent
Kotah, circa 1845-50gouache and gold on paper, yellow and red borders
460 x 690 mm.注脚Provenance
Formerly with I. G. Hastie, Salisbury.
Christie's, Visions of India, 17th June 1998, lot 164.
Private UK collection.

It is likely that the British figure can be identified as Captain (later Major) Charles Aeneas Burton, Bt. (1812-57), an officer in the 40th Native Infantry, and political agent at Kotah or Harrowtee between 1846 and 1847. He was killed there in 1857 during the Mutiny, or Rebellion, along with his two sons. While it was never proved that Ram Singh was directly involved in the murders, the British symbolically reduced his official salute by several guns.

James Tod, in his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, talks about the Kotah hunting grounds: 'We proceeded to the Shikargas, a hunting seat, erected halfway up the gentle ascent, having terraced roofs and parapets, on which the sportsman lays his gun to massacre the game; and here we waited some time in anxious anticipation, occasionally some deer scudding by... Soon various kind of deer galloped wildly past'... However, 'there was no tiger, in the assemblage, which rather disappointed us... A slaughter commenced...' (quoted in M. C. Beach, Rajput Painting at Bundi and Kota, Ascona 1974, p. 40).