The Lahore court painters
Indian and European artists who painted Ranjit Singh's durbar, from Kehar Singh to August Schoefft.
The court of Ranjit Singh drew artists of many kinds. Local painters such as Kehar Singh, Kapur Singh and members of the Purkhu family of Kangra painted portraits of the Maharaja and his ministers, scenes of village trades and the life of the bazaars, often in sets sold to European visitors.
European artists came too. Emily Eden, sister of the Governor-General, sketched the Maharaja in 1838. The Hungarian painter August Schoefft visited Lahore in 1841 and later painted, in Vienna, a huge canvas of the court of Lahore and a famous picture of the Golden Temple, now in the Princess Bamba Collection in the Lahore Fort. The army surgeon John McCosh took some of the first photographs of the Punjab during the Second Anglo-Sikh War.
Together these artists left a richly detailed picture of the Sikh court at its height: its jewels, turbans, armour and horses, and the faces of the men and women who ruled the last independent kingdom of the Punjab.
Gallery
8 works
Pictures from Wikimedia Commons; select one to see it full size with its credit.
More painting and art
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