Portrait of a Noble

Towards the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century several British born artists were working in India, including Tilly Kettle, Thomas Hickey and James Wales, who were commissioned to paint formal portraits of both British and Indian sitters.  These artists introduced British Academic portraiture to the Indian courts and soon Indian artists were copying this style for their local patrons.
Although we cannot identify the artist who produced the current work, the style suggests that it was by an Indian hand and was probably produced by an artist working in a southern or Maratha court.  Although this work does not appear to be by a known contemporaneous artist such as Ramaswamy Naidu or Raja Ravi Varma,  it is clear that the painter had a strong grasp of western iIlusionism popular at the time.