A Raja and His Courtiers in Procession Outside a Walled City

Object Details

• Court

  Hyderabad Court

• School/Tradition

  Deccani school

• Description

  A prince mounted on an ornately decorated elephant, preceded by a younger relative seated upon a horse, advances with a party of 108 courtiers, servants and soldiers. The drummers and musicians announcing his advance, the cavalry and cannon he commands, and the golden elephant howdah are all indications of his status. The pet cheetah borne on an ox cart in the painting's center foreground is, in all likelihood, a gift for the enthroned ruler watching the procession from a marble pavilion at the walled city's perimeter.

• Provenance

  From 1940s

  Private collector, purchased in Delhi in the 1940s [1]

  To 2000

  Terence McInerney Fine Arts Ltd., New York City, to 2000

  From 2000

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Terence McInerney Fine Arts Ltd. in 2000

  Notes:

  [1] The object was purchased in Delhi by a private collector in the early 1940s and brought to England in the subsequent decade (according to Curatorial Note 2, Debra Diamond, September 28, 2000, in the object record).

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Arts of the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas (October 16, 2004 to January 3, 2016)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Terence McInerney Fine Arts, Ltd. (active 1990-2013)

• Origin

  Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh state, Deccan plateau, India

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

  The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The National Museum of Asian Art welcomes information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections.

Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1780s, 1790s

• Name

  McInerney, Terence

• Place

  Andhra Pradesh state, Deccan plateau, Hyderabad, India

• Topic

  Raja, South Asian and Himalayan Art, Art, Animals, Wall, Drums (Membranophones), Music, Cymbal, Horses, Cities and towns, Courtier, Elephants

• Culture

  Himalayan peoples, South Asians

• Object Type

  Paintings