Portrait of Maharaja Rai Singh of Bikaner (reigned 1574-1612)
Medium
Ink and gum tempera on paper
Dimensions
image: 20.5 × 14.6 cm · paper: 42.4 × 26 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Flora D. Glass and Elwood G. Glass Jr.
Accession Number
1987.1100
Tags
About this artwork
Drawings such as this served as models for formal painted portraits of Mughal and Rajput royalty in court workshops. The confident contour lines, delicate shading, and subtle facial expression are the work of the master artist Nur Muhammad (active 1570s–1630s), identified in a Persian inscription on the back. He came from a distinguished family of artists who settled in Bikaner by the mid-1500s. Nur Muhammad also worked at the Mughal court, notably for the mother of Emperor Akbar (reigned 1565–1...