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Raja Dilip Singh of Guler on a dais

c. 1707

Medium: Gum tempera and gold on paper
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: Image: 22.7 x 15.3 cm (8 15/16 x 6 in.); Overall: 27.1 x 19.8 cm (10 11/16 x 7 13/16 in.)
Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Rights: Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it: Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

About this work

Dilip Singh (reigned 1695–1741) holds a manuscript page with alternating lines of red and black ink, which may be a sacred text that announces his devotion to the Hindu god Vishnu, whose mark appears on his forehead. He inaugurated the practice of commissioning paintings and manuscripts for the royal collection at Guler. Some members of a family of artists of Guler had worked in the Mughal imperial workshop in Lahore in present-day Pakistan. They brought a vision of naturalism and delicate refinement evident in the trees, his facial features, Mughal-style belted tunic, and carpet with floral patterns.